


Critical Role Fictober 2019

by MS_Garlit



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2020-11-23 01:19:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 38,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20883806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MS_Garlit/pseuds/MS_Garlit
Summary: A collection of one shots that follow the Fictober daily prompts involving our favorite band of Wildemount chaotics!More tags will be added as fics are addedEach chapter has what ships and friend-ships are the focus of the chapter <3





	1. It'll Be Fun (Fjord/Jester)

_“It’ll be fun.”_

As soon as Jester said those words, Fjord should’ve hightailed it back to the inn the Mighty Nein were staying at for the night. What Jester considered “fun” often landed her and whoever was dumb enough to join her in a heaping pile of trouble. Hadn’t Nott and her “fun” in the Platinum Dragon’s temple been enough indication to Fjord to not join her?

Yet, like the fool he was, he still joined Jester on her errands around Zadash.

_“They’ll be like suuuuuuper quick, Fjord! And, we might be able to even stop by and get some pastries at the end! I hope they have something with chocolate! Or cinnamon!”_

Instead of turning around, Fjord chuckled at her comments and even asked which was her favorite: cinnamon or chocolate? Which, of course, led to Jester spouting out the pros and cons of each while gesticulating wildly, making him chuckle again. And then she had the nerve to ask which was _his_ favorite, which made Fjord blush because when was the last time someone cared what he likes? The walk around Zadash continued like this for several more minutes, before he even had a chance to realize where Jester had directed them: the Trispire. 

_Hmm, I wonder why Jester wanted to come here. Maybe to pick up more mail from the Pillow Trove?_ Fjord remembers he naively thought, like an idiot. This, of course, was before Jester really started her trouble in the district, but Fjord still should’ve still seen it coming. Did he really think Jester, a trickster cleric for a trickster god called The Traveller, would just do normal errands like Caleb or Beau? 

Nope: Jester’s errands consisted of vandalizing as many store signs as possible while she convinced Fjord to go inside and distract the owners, getting caught by Crown’s Guards for vandalizing before mentioned store signs, casting “Charm Person” at said Crown’s Guards unsuccessfully, and then grabbing Fjord by his hand—making him turn pink yet again—before dragging him through the streets of Zadash, laughing the whole damn way.

Thus, they were now here, in a broom closet, as Crown’s Guards ran through the building Jester had dragged Fjord into. He thought he caught the word “inn” as they ran past, but Fjord wasn’t sure. What he _was _sure about was that he and Jester were flush against one another, and it was safe to say that they would be forced to stay like this for the foreseeable future.

This was _definitely _not fun.

“I forgot you got super buff, or else we would’ve fit better in here,” Jester whispered, her eyes sparkling with mischief as they scanned Fjord’s face, “Fjord, are you _blushing_?”

“No, of course not,” he heard him say too quickly, before glancing up at the ceiling. She was short, so at that angle, she wouldn’t be able to see his expression.

Fjord felt more than heard, Jester attempt to contain the giggles that had begun to bubble up within her with her hand. The tiny vibrations rumbled through Fjord’s chest as her hand accidentally brushed up against him, making the blush on his face deepen. 

“You know, we could always disguise ourselves to look like the staff here, and try to sneak back out there?” Jester added, after a few moments of silence passed between the two.

“But how would we explain what we were doing in a closet together?” Fjord still couldn’t find it in himself to remove his eyes from the ceiling. If he continued to look up, he could maybe convince himself that he didn’t have Jester pressed right up against him, and then he wouldn’t do anything even more foolish. This thought was shatter at the next thing that popped out of Jester’s mouth.

“We could’ve been making out.”

Fjord’s breath left him, as he continued to stare at the ceiling. Nope, nope, nope: Fjord would not and could not entertain that scenario with Jester’s face right _here_, inches away from his if he looked down.

He felt her shrug, “It’s not like we actually _have_ to, you know. We can just disguise ourselves to look like we were just making out,” when her voice took on a more playful tone, Fjord didn’t need to look at her face to know that she was raising her eyebrows suggestively at him, “Unless you _want_ to make out for real?”

When another wave a giggles swept through Jester and through his chest, Fjord couldn’t help but pray to the Wildmother to get them out of this sooner rather than later. It was taking more effort than he’d like to admit for him to continue staring at the ceiling and not down at his tiefling companion. _Please get us out of here before I do something stupid._

As if in answer, the door behind him locked, just as something heavy and large was pressed up against the bottom half of the door.

Fjord now glanced down at Jester, her eyes widened in surprise as her jaw dropped her mouth into a surprised little “o”. It quickly morphed into a guilty grin, as she shrugged, “Looks like I _might_ need to message someone to come get us?”

He sighed, glancing back up at the ceiling, as she began her message to Beau, which Fjord dutifully counted out on his fingers next to her head. 

Having “fun” with Jester was decidedly more like torture for Fjord.


	2. Just Follow Me. I Know the Area (Beau & Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jester decides to take a mini trip to see her best friend Beau at college!!! Things don't go as planned.
> 
> The Beau + Jester modern college AU no one asked for!!!
> 
> As a note: Beau was an exchange student that lived with Jester in the Lavish Chateu in Nicodranas. Beau moved to Xhorhas for college just about two weeks before since she is party of the women's rugby team. Jester decided not to go to college.

It had been a stupid idea, really, to try and surprise Beau with her presence on Beau’s first day of classes at the University of Xhorhas. 

But Jester had just missed Beau so much after she’d move away from Nicodranas that Jester had taken it upon herself to show up and add a bit of home to Beau’s day. Jester didn’t fully understand why Beau wanted to move away to do even _more_ school—hadn’t high school been bad enough?—she was still supportive of Beau’s dreams. Beau’s parents were already shitty: Beau didn’t need her friends to be terrible, too. She had planned to show up at Beau’s dorm just as she got back from class and tackle hug her to the floor: Jester had even had the foresight to pack both Beau’s family wine and Nicodranian pastries to celebrate her best friend first day.

What Jester hadn’t foreseen was how big the college campus was. 

Walking between the buildings of the college from the train station, Jester immediately felt like she didn’t belong, a feeling so foreign to the bright, blue-haired girl that she felt her eyes begin to water. Where Nicodranas was colorful and shining, Xhorhas was dark and mysterious. Yes, a part of Jester wanted to find out all of the city’s secrets—Lavorres where known to be curious women—but she mostly felt like going home. Jester was made for the sunshine and the sea, not darkened cities and buildings that towered over her. 

Passing through the brick archways onto the main campus had only amplified the feeling tenfold as she had the distinct feeling that every single student she passed was staring at her. True, Jester had worn her favorite light-up sneakers and neon pink legs, but that was only because it matched her backpack and duffle bag. It’s not like she’d worn her diamond Gucci Slides or tie-dye shirt! Now _that_ would’ve been worth the intrusive stares she was receiving.

_This is okay, Jester. The only reason they’re staring is because you look very cute and they all wish they had your fashion sense. I mean, these shoes are very cool. They just want a pair_, Jester said, as she continued deeper down the twisting pathways of the university.

Passing a group of people sitting on a picnic blanket, Jester’s heart sank as she heard someone say, “People actually wear neon? What a freak.”

As the others with them laughed, Jester began to walk faster, eyes focused on the pavement in front of her. She came to see Beau, she needed to see Beau. Once she did, everything would be okay! Beau would be happy, Jester would be happy. She just needed to find Beau’s dorm…

Looking back up, Jester’s hope dwindle: she had no idea where she was. 

“That’s fine. It’s okay! That’s why I have a cellphone, so I can search for a map of campus,“ Jester soothed, her voice coming out a little too high and her smile a bit too tight, as she pulled out her phone. After typing in the phrase, Jester stared at her phone as the small color wheel spun. And spun. And spun. And spun…

_Check internet connection_, Jester felt another bit of hope fade.

“No, that’s okay! I am just in a dead zone! I can just ask someone for direction to the Cobalt…dorm…” Jester added, voice bright before it immediately began to falter as she came to the realization that she was, in fact, alone. 

Flopping down on the nearest bench, Jester pressed her palms into her eyes to stop the tears that threatened. She was alone, on a strange college campus, with concrete buildings, and weirdly twisty pathways, in a place where her phone didn’t work and her best friend didn’t even know she was there…

“Are you lost?” a nasally voice interrupted Jester’s quickly spiraling thoughts. Looking up, she found a stringy-haired, short woman dressed in what only could be described as a puke green suit-short set, eying Jester suspiciously. “You don’t look like you go here.”

Jester nodded vigorously, causing the bell earrings she wore to jingle brightly, “I am and I don’t! I’m looking for the Cobalt dorm! I’m visiting a friend!”

“That’s on the opposite side of campus, near the bookstore,” the woman said, her eyes still narrowed at Jester, “You aren’t here to tag the Chemistry building, are you?”

“No, of course not! I just wanted to surprise my friend!” Jester said emphatically.

After a few more seconds of evaluation, the woman shrugged, before turning abruptly away. Taking a few steps, she turned back around, her shrill voice ringing out clearly in the space, “Well, aren’t you coming?”

“Oh! Sorry, I just thought you were walking away,” Jester said, jumping up and following behind the woman quickly. Now that she was standing, Jester was surprised to find that the woman was shorter than her—which was saying quite a bit as Jester was only 5’3”. After a moment of silence passed, Jester added, “Um, where are we going?”

“Your friend’s dorm. Just follow me. I know the area,” the woman responded, without looking back, “Well, technically to the bookstore. As I don’t work here, I can’t get in the dorms. But my friend, Caleb, works at the bookstore so he can let you in.”

“Oh! Thank you!” Jester smiled brightly, finally feeling the weight lift off her chest a bit. She stuck out a hand towards the woman, “I’m Jester, Jester Lavorre.”

“Nott,” the woman supplied, shaking Jester’s hand. “Technically, it’s Veth Natalie Brenatto. But, I don’t like being called ‘Veth’ by anyone other than my family. And I never liked Natalie or Nat. So I go by ‘Nott’.”

“Well, it is soooooo nice to meet you, Nott,” Jester offered brightly, her smile widening a little at Nott’s small one, “Do you work here?”

“No, but my husband does. He’s a professor in the Chemistry Department. I sometimes help him prep for classes since I graduated with a Chemistry degree, too,” Nott responded, turning another corner. Jester quickened her pace: for someone so short, Nott was _very_ fast. “He’s brilliant and should absolutely be the dean of the physical sciences. But he’s a nervous wreck and doesn’t believe that he is brilliant even though I tell him he is practically daily. And, our son…”

Jester let herself stop listening, as the feeling of comfort sunk into her bones. She had company, she was happy, and she’d made a new friend. Maybe college wasn’t so bad after all.


	3. Now? Now You Listen to Me? (Caleb & Beau)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Modern dark!Small Town AU focusing on everyone's favorite Empire Siblings! If you squint, there's a bit of Beaujester in there too.

“Caleb, you are _such_ a dick.”

Caleb, who had been absentmindedly petting Frumpkin while doing the AP World History reading for the night, glanced up to see his step-sister glaring at him. He tilted his head to the side in confusion, earning a snarl from Beau.

“When you saw me deck Avantika, you were supposed to help Jessie distract her posse. You _know_ how awful my girl is in social situations,” Beau growled, before leaning back on the couch to press the bag of frozen peas against her black eye again.

Caleb felt a sudden urge to roll his eyes, but settled on going back to his book, “Ja, you did mention that before.”

“Then why the _fuck _did you let me get wrecked by her crew?!” Beau was up, pacing out her anger in front of him. “Thank _fucking _God Fjord just got out of football practice and tackled one of them, or else I would’ve been a meat smear on the pavement after long.”

“You deciding to assault the known-leader of a local gang with only your girlfriend to distract her right hands seems like a clear choice to me that you were planning to get ‘wrecked’,” Caleb continued, scanning over the page for the third time before adding, “Besides, you told me that I didn’t have to support your battles if I didn’t want to.”

Caleb dropped the book when the pillow made contact with his face.

A pillow smacked him in the face.“Now?” 

Another pillow swing struck. “_Now_ you listen to me?”

Caleb brought his hands up to protect his face as Beau took another swing,“I am _trying_ to disband the most menacing gang in town, and _you_ decide to listen to my self-righteous, ‘save yourself’ bullcrap now? My own, goddamn _brother_ not supporting me in taking down a group of dickheads who are slowly taking over our home? _Seriously?!_”

“_Ja_, seriously,” he’d effectively pulled the pillow away from her, as her glared back up at her, “Unlike you,_ frauline_, I’d prefer not to get into anymore trouble with our parents when we come home covered in blood.”

Beau rolled her eyes, “We were hardly ‘covered’: it was just a bit of spray from the time I broke that guy’s nose. You were standing too close.”

“Blood is blood, Beauregard.”

The two silently glared at one another for several long moments, seeming to dare the other to speak first. Only because Beau was the more stubborn of the two, Caleb broke the silence.

“What _if _Fjord didn’t show up?”

She gritted her teeth, eyes flaring, “That’s exactly what I was saying—“

“And what if Jester had gotten hurt, too?”

“Jessie always takes care of herself. She’s stronger than she looks—“

“But what if they ganged up on her? What if this time she couldn’t dodge their hits? Or you weren’t with her, and she walked right into trouble while you weren’t around to save her? What then, Beau?” Caleb pressed, watching as a bright fury popped up behind Beau’s eyes. 

“I’d kill them. I’d kill them all,” came the simple answer.

“And, how would that have helped Jester, hmm? Avenging her is not _nearly_ as good as preventing it from happening to begin with, _ja_?” he leaned down and picked up his book, opening it once more to the bookmarked page.

“So, we’re just supposed to let them deface people’s lockers and blackmail our teachers? That’s what you’re suggesting?” Beau’s voice was still boiling with rage.

“That is not what I am saying, and you know it,” he reread the page briefly, before flipping to the next. They would be going over the chapter next Friday, but Caleb still thought it best to get ahead.

“Then what do you suggest I do instead of knocking the teeth out of that red-haired bitch?” Beau tapped her foot against the floor in front of him.

Caleb sighed, closing his textbook yet again to look at her: must he spell out everything? “There is more than one way to get rid of a gang, Beauregard. The hard way,” he motioned to her quickly swelling eye, “or the easy way.”

Beau rolled her eyes, “And what is the ‘easy way’? Because, I’m pretty sure just telling the cops to arrest them isn’t gonna cut it. They have connections everywhere.”

“Which means you can use that against them.”

Beau narrowed her eyes, clearly not following but not wishing to tell him this.

“The Darktow Gang want to take over the town. And the way they do that is by having moles across the city. That’s how they know about drug raids before they happen, and find out secrets to blackmail people. They need a network to survive,” Caleb explained.

Beau began to nod along to his words, beginning to pace back and forth, “But networks rely on good intel and trust with their insiders. So if we became insiders…”

“We could leak them bad information. Like how they needed to clear out their office to prepare for inspection when really—“

“We take all the evidence we need during the sweep up and deposit it to the right cop’s door!” Beau sat down hard on the couch beside him, “Dude, you’re a genius!”

Caleb shrugged, glancing down to his textbook yet again, “It is nothing. I just am sick of all the wet spots you leave around the house from your multiple black eyes. You leave your bags of half-defrosted food everywhere.” 

His reading was interrupted by what his sister called a “slight shove”. It was a misnomer because, per usual, the shove caused Caleb to end up on the floor.

As he stood dusting himself, Beau gave him a heavy pat on the back, “Thanks, bro. I owe you one. I’m gonna go tell Fjord and Jester the plan.” She ran off, leaving her bag of frozen peas behind on the coffee table.

Seeing this, Caleb sighed, leaning back into his spot to continue his homework. His step-sister really was something else.


	4. I Know You Didn't Ask For This (Nott/Veth/Yeza)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nott has some late night thoughts and can't sleep. Yeza is the best husband ever.

The first night in the Xhorhouse for Nott was bad. Very, very bad.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited to have a house again: Nott wouldn’t even pretend to lie to the rest of the Mighty Nein about liking to stay in inns or worse—camp—every single night. The last time she’d had a house was Felderwin, and some of her best memories came from making a life in that warm place. Why wouldn’t she want this again?

No, it definitely wasn’t the house itself that was making it impossible for Nott to go up to her room that first night. 

_No, it isn’t my room. It’s _ _our_ _ room,_ she corrected herself, feeling that sense of anxiety that she had been feeling all day well up inside her again. Curling up tighter on the couch, Nott released a long held sigh.

She shouldn’t have been feeling like this. Yeza was—_is_ her husband. They have a son together, for gods’ sake! Nott shouldn't _not_ want to go upstairs right now and share a bed with her husband, even though she no longer was the soft and a halfling and had too many teeth in too small a mouth and _was it just her or was it warm in here_?

Nott tightened her arms around herself, trying to keep herself from shaking as tears began to run down her cheeks. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t that halfling anymore. She’s not Veth; she’s just not. 

Just Nott. 

She couldn’t bring herself to go up there right now. Not without a drink or two. But she’d promised Yeza that she’d hold back on the drinking, so liquid courage wasn’t an option either. 

“Veth?” came a soft, uncertain voice from the stairwell, causing Nott to sit up and quickly brushaway the tear tracks.

“Yes?” Nott replied, forcing her voice into something a little less pitchy and sharp than it normally was. 

When he found her, Yeza carefully took a seat next to her, trying not to disrupt the cushions too much. He carefully took her hand in his, making a new wave of guilt crash through her. 

“You’ve been crying,” he said after a moment. 

Nott could only nod in response. 

He took a deep breath, tightening his hold on Nott’s hand, “Is it because of me?”

“No, of course not!” Nott gave his hand a tight squeeze before turning to him, “I walked from Felderwin to come get you. I’m so happy you’re safe, Yeza.”

“Me too,” Yeza intertwined their fingers, before glancing back over to her, “But, Veth…why won’t you come up to our room?”

Nott looked away, slowly pulling her hand back from him, “Yeza…”

“Veth, please, I know what you’re going to say,” he pressed a hand to Nott’s cheek.

She shook her head as tears slowly started once again, “No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do,” Yeza brushed away one of her tears. He took a deep breath before saying, “You’re going to say that you aren’t really Veth anymore. That I’m not sharing a bed with Veth, my wife, anymore: I’m living with Nott now.”

Hearing him say it aloud made it hurt all that much more. Nott tried to pull away again. Yeza pressing his other hand to her face gave her pause. Looking up into his face, and the pure joy he had there in his eyes, was what actually stopped her.

“But that’s not true, Veth. You’re still brilliant, and brave, and so much stronger than you give yourself credit for. I know you didn’t ask for this. You did what you had to save me and our son. You might not look like you used to, but,” Yeza pressed his forehead against hers, “You’re still my wife. You’re still the mother to our son. And you’re still my Veth.”

Nott felt her tears flow faster as she wrapped her arms around Yeza, her husband, her Yeza, pressing her face into his shirt. It only took a moment for him to pull her in tighter to him. 

Once her tears slowed, Nott pulled back to look up at him, “Yeza?”

“Yes?” His eyes still glowed with that warmth and happiness that made her want to start crying all over again.

“Let’s go upstairs and get some rest,” she said, getting up and reaching back towards him.

He intertwined their fingers as he let Nott pull him up gently, “That sounds perfect.”


	5. I Might Just Kiss You (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fjord gets hurt in a battle and his favorite tiefling cleric saves him. How ever will he repay her for such a kindness???

The fight went bad just as fast as it always did. Fjord was seriously considering suggesting to the Nein to just never even bother trying to plan: they had a spectacularly terrible pass rate. This time was no different.

First, the stone giant they were hunting heard Caduceus asking the trees for directions. Then, the giant threw Caleb and Beau yards away from the fight, leaving Fjord with two clerics and a rogue. It seemed almost fitting that the giant almost immediately smashed him into the ground.

Waking up from the ground pound, Fjord found himself being carried away from the fight. The vision of trees sweeping past him made him want to hurl.

“Oh, thank the Traveller, you’re awake!” came the frankly worried sounding voice next to him, distracting him from his nausea. Glancing up, Fjord took in the soft blue face that hovered above and violet slightly panicked eyes: Jester. “I thought I’d have to heal you.”

“Not that I’d turn away a spell from you, but I am still…” Fjord glanced down to where Jester still carried him bridal-style, “Well, more that I _can_ still…be standing… It’s a half-orc…thing?” 

Jester giggled as he silently cursed himself, _I swear it sounded better in my head._

Letting him down, Jester glanced back at the fight, relaxing as a flash of fire warmed the area, “Oh good, Caleb just got back to the fight,” turning back to Fjord, she smiled, “Looks like I have a second before they need me in there.”

She pressed a cool hand to his cheek, which Fjord leaned into immediately. He hoped that Jester assumed that it was due to him being on the verge of passing out. (It wasn’t.) Clutching her holy symbol, Fjord sighed as a wave of light green magic passed through him. He felt his bones mending and cuts closing all over his body as if nothing was wrong to begin with.

When his spine twisted into its correct position Fjord smiled, “Thank you. I might just kiss you for this.”

As the words came out, he immediately regretted them.

Jester pulled her hand away from his face, as her own paled, “What?!”

“Erm, uh, well—“ Fjord felt his jaw open and close several times as Jester’s eyes continued to look at him in terror. Why, of all times, did he suddenly lose his entire vocabulary?! Wasn’t he supposed to be the charming one in the group? 

“Jess! Cad needs some help over here!” Beau’s voice cut through the awkward moment easily, just as the stone giant released a roar.

Jester quickly walked backwards away from Fjord, “I should…” She flailed her arms in the general direction of the fight.

“Yup, sounds good,” he heard himself respond, giving her finger guns. _Seriously?! Finger guns?!_

“I’ll heal you more after the fight if we survive!” she called over her shoulder as she full-on ran back towards the giant, who had taken it upon himself to try playing golf with Beau’s head.

Fjord pressed both of his hands to his face, letting out a strangled groan. He almost got knocked out in a fight, was carried away from it like a child by the most gorgeous tiefling he’d ever seen (Fjord was now apparently admitting that he found Jester gorgeous and funny and sweet and—_arghh!_), and he’d admitted to wanting to kiss Jester. Honestly, could this day get any worse.

“Fjord! Get your green ass over here and distract this thing! Caleb’s down again!” shouted Beau, getting Fjord’s attention.

_Oh, right, I still need to fight a giant,_ Fjord groaned again, picking up the Star Razor. Hopefully he wouldn’t get knocked out again this time.

—————————————————————

Fjord got knocked out again. 

And, this time, when he awoke, he found himself in leaning up against a rock with Caduceus pulling away from him with that ever present calm smile on his face.

“Good to see you up again,” Cad said, leaning on his staff just exuding calm.

Fjord pulled a hand across his face, “What did I miss while I was out?”

“Nott killed the stone giant with an exploding arrow to the chest. Those things really are deadly,” Cad’s face seemed to twitch for a moment before the calm smile resumed, “Beau and her are currently in the giant’s cave looking for the artifact.”

“What about Jester?” Fjord internally cursed himself: he was supposed to ask that in a much more casual way.

If Caduceus found anything off by the question, he didn’t care to mention it, “She took a swing or two, but she’s fine. She’s over there healing Caleb at the moment.” Cad motioned over Fjord’s shoulder to a tree nearby where the two sat by one another.

Jester pressed her hands to Caleb’s arm, eyes screwed up tight, as Caleb’s body seemed to right itself. As the magic seemed to run its course, Caleb murmured something to Jester, making her face break into a giant smile and her tale behind her twist in the air. Fjord tightened his jaw as Jester threw back her head in a laugh as Caleb said something.

“Well, they seem to be enjoying themselves,” Caduceus said, bringing Fjord’s attention back to him. 

“Yes. They are,” Fjord couldn’t fight the irritation from his voice, but thank the gods Caduceus didn’t notice it. For being so brilliant, Cad really didn’t pick up social cues. 

Caduceus passed a glance over Fjord again, “It looks like you’re still looking pretty rough. I’d heal you more but I’ve run out of magic for the day.”

“I’m fine, Caduceus. Really. I appreciate you awaking me,” Fjord said genuinely, giving Cad what he hoped was a thankful smile.

“It’s no trouble,” Cad responded, with a smile and nod, before adding more seriously, “But you do look in awful shape still. Jester! Could you come over here?! Fjord needs a bit more healing!”

“No, Cad, wait—“ Fjord whispered harshly, but stopped as Jester approached, the joyous expression gone. 

“I’ll leave you to her capable hands,” Caduceus added, before taking Jester’s previous spot near Caleb.

Jester fiddled with her skirt, as she took a seat beside Fjord, who for his part was desperately trying to think of things to say. Should he apologize? Or maybe put into action his previous comment? Oh, definitely not that: Jester had paled at the mere mention of a kiss from him. Not to mention with his tusks, he’d probably hurt her. Oh gods, he’d probably cut her gorgeous lips _and make her bleed and_—

“You know, Fjord, if you just wanted me to touch you more, you just had to ask. Almost dying is much less fun,” Jester teased, pressing a hand to Fjord’s cheek and another to his forearm, closing her eyes as green light emanated from her palms.

Fjord cleared his throat before responding, “You caught me: this has all been an elaborate ploy for you to caress my face. You’ve seen right through my plan, Lavorre. You really are the best detective.”

Jester gave a huff of approval as her lips widened into a smile, “Well, of course, I am!I’ve only been telling everyone that every chance I get!”

“And I was a fool for not listening,” Fjord gave her a slight bow, “I apologize for overlooking your brilliance.”

“I accept as long as you never, ever underestimate me again,” she said, opening those violet eyes of hers as they sparkled with mirth.

“Sounds reasonable for me,” he smiled, before placing his hand on top of the hand she’d place on his forearm, his voice becoming a bit more serious, “Thank you for the healing, Jester.”

“It’s no trouble, Fjord,” she responded, the small smile on her lips falling as her brows knit together, “You need to stop throwing yourself right in the front of fights though. This is the fourth time in a row you’ve knocked out during a fight.”

“Without Yasha, I can take the most hits out of the team. It’s my job to take those hits for the rest of you,” Fjord shrugged off the comment, giving her hand a squeeze, “Besides, I’d rather go down than have you get hit.”

Fjord took a bit of happiness from the way her cheeks purpled slightly.

However, her smiled dropped again, as she pulled her hand away from under his, “But I still don’t like you taking hits for me. You practically threw yourself at that giant.”

“Jester, you can heal me if I get hurt. But if you went down—“

“Caduceus could heal me. And, with a bit more training from the Wildmother, soon you can, too—“ she waved off.

Fjord caught her hand, mid-wave, finding the thought of how little Jester cared about her own safety disturbing. Didn’t she know how much she meant to the Nein? “But what if he runs out of spells? What would happen to you then? No, you going down isn’t an option. I need—_I mean, we!_ We need you to be okay. Okay?”

Jester’s eyes widened for a moment, before a sweet smile filled her face. She gave Fjord’s hand a soft squeeze, “Okay.”

“Good, because I still insist on jumping in front of most of the hits you take. How else would I get you to touch me?” Fjord responded, giving her a wink, as he let his hand drop from hers as she stood.

Jester burst into giggles, “It’d _totally_ ruin your whole plan.” She smoother out her dress as she stood, giving Fjord another gentle smile, that made his heart stutter, “Thank you for protecting me, Fjord.”

“Anytime, Jester,” he said, smiling up at her. With the sun behind her, she looked angelic, with the soft light filtering through blue of her hair. 

Still admiring her, Fjord barely noticed as the distance between their faces decreased until her lips had already lightly brushed against his. All the air from his lungs decided to leave him as all the blood in his body seemed to find home in his face.

“I decided to take your offer from earlier. I hope you don’t mind,” Jester said, her eyes gleaming with mischief as she pulled away.

All Fjord could come up with was a tiny whine that sounded similar to a cry from Frumpkin.

“Thank you again, Fjord!” Jester sang back to him, shooting him a wink over her shoulder as she skipped over to Caduceus, who had begun to set up camp.

If he hadn’t been healed by her twice already, Fjord could’ve sworn that he was about to pass out again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who is almost up to date on the challenge?!?! (Not me, but getting closer!!!) Wish me luck, fam.


	6. Yes, I'm Aware. Your Point? (Beau/Keg vs Reani vs Yasha)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern College AU! Beau and Jester are having a party at their house this Friday.  
Jester was in charge of the guest list. I'm sure she didn't invite people she shouldn't have... right?

Beau glared at the front of the room, rolling the pencil in her fingers steadily.

She was fucked. Absolutely, positively fucked. And it was _all_ Jester’s fault.

“You are really so totally fucked, you know that right?” Fjord said, slipping into the desk beside her, letting go of Jester’s hand only to drop his bag to the floor. He immediately re-intertwined them once he finished preparing for the lecture.

Beau snapped her pencil in half, turning in her seat to glare at him and his traitor of a girlfriend, “Yes, I’m aware. Your point?”

“Well, what are you going to do about it? The party is on Friday, and it’s already Wednesday,” Fjord pointed out, uselessly.

“Yes, Fjord, I am very aware of that. What else would you like to tell me? That _your girlfriend _invited both of the girls I’ve been fucking and the girl I’m crushing on all to the same party. Because, let me tell you, I already knew that and _I can’t believe she hates me enough to actually ruin my life_!” Beau was standing now, glaring over at the neon blue hair over Fjord.

Jester looked up at her, a picture of innocence, “Beau, I really didn’t think it’d be an issue if I invited Reani, Keg and Yasha to the party. All three of them are our friends, so it would’ve been _super_ weird if I didn’t invite them to the house party! I mean, I invited Calianna and she doesn’t even go to school here! What if the two _not_ invited found out about that? They would’ve be sooooo sad, Beau!”

“See! She absolutely had to invite all three of them. No need to kill her over that,” Fjord said, wrapping an arm around Jester, “Besides, we _finally_ got together. Can you please not kill her for the sole reason that your ‘Captain Single’ is now with your 'Blueberry Muffin'?”

“Aww, I didn’t know you guys called me ‘Blueberry Muffin’!” Jester said, pressing her forehead into his arm, a bright grin across her face.

He smiled softly, saying, “Of course, we do. You always have some sort of breakfast pastry with you and your hair is blue. It was only natural.”

“I so totally like it, Captain Single,” Jester said, pressing a kiss to Fjord’s cheek, before adding with an eyebrow wiggle, “Maybe we should call you ‘Captain Taken’ now though?”

Beau rolled her eyes at Fjord’s blush and Jester’s accompanying giggle. They may have been her favorite gym buddy and her roommate for almost two years respectively, and Beau might have even been rooting for them to get together for the whole time, but that didn’t mean their PDA wasn’t making Beau want to G-A-G.

“Guys, can you keep the snuggles and romance to your bedrooms? Because you’re making me want to shove this broken pencil into. My. Eye. Socket!” Beau punctuated each word with a jabbing motion towards her eyes.

“Hey! Not cool!”

“Don’t even joke about that, Beau!”

Dropping the pencil pieces to her desk, Beau groaned as she flopped back down into her seat, pressing her palms to her eye sockets. “What the hell  _am_ I gonna do guys? Reani and Keg don’t know about each other. And I sure as hell don’t want Yasha knowing about me screwing around with other people! I mean, it’s not like we’ve had more than a handful of conversations, but I think there _might_ be something, you know? So if she meets them… it’ll ruin everything.”

“Oh, Beau! It won’t ruin everything!” Jester said, leaning across her boyfriend to grab onto one of Beau’s arms, “Yasha and you aren’t even dating! I’m sure she won’t even mind!”

“You sure, Jess?” Beau asked, a small sliver of hope beginning to build.

“Of course! You know Yasha: she is the absolute chillest!”

“I think you more need to worry about Reani and Keg ganging up on you to rip off your arms and legs once they find out you’ve been consistently screwing both of them,” Fjord very helpfully pointed out, body slamming Beau back to Earth.

“Fjord’s right: Keg is captain of the women’s wrestling team and you met Reani at that Spartan Race. They are both, like super strong,” Jester agreed, wrapping her arms around Fjord’s.

Beau groaned again, slamming her forehead down on to her desk. Turning her head to them, she asked in her most hopeful voice, “Do you think there’s any chance that they could avoid each other the whole night without me keeping them apart?”

Both Fjord and Jester glanced at each other briefly before turning back to Beau, shaking their heads, while speaking in unison: “Nope.” “Definitely not.”

“Great,” Beau muttered, pressing her forehead back into the desk, as the lecturer came in.


	7. No and That's Final (Jester/Caleb)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jester and Nott have a plan to get Caleb the book he needs. Caleb doesn't want to imagine what could go wrong if they try.

Caleb liked to think he was a patient man.

He was a constant reader, and, as a wizard, it took many hours of study to learn new spells. They were often so complicated and intense, they required every ounce of concentration Caleb could muster. Then, of course, there was his long-reaching goal. The one that he dare not even speak aloud for fear of jinxing it. It’d take him a lifetime of learning, years of studying and more than a bit of luck for the chance to see them again. His parents. In the flesh, instead of what hallucinations were made of. In order to achieve _that_, Caleb would need to be a patient man indeed.

However, despite this hard-earned, lifetime of patience he had within him, Caleb found that, after sitting here in the war room, listening to Jester and Nott’s plan he was at the end of his rope.

“No, no, no. Ca-leb, you don’t understand! I won’t _actually_ be in any danger! It’ll just be a quick in and out! And I can grab that book you were eyeballing before guards can find me and—“ Jester rushed out, a bright smile on her face.

“And! I’ll be right there with her! Every step of the way! Picking locks, shooting guards in the gullet if they find us,” Nott quickly added as Caleb’s frown deepened, “Not that they will find us! I’m saying just in case they do. It’s a quick B and E, Caleb! It really won’t be any trouble.”

He pinched his eyebrows together, as he processed what the two women were saying, “So, you are both telling me that you intend to just pop into the deepest bowels of the Xhorhasian library with only the distraction of firecrackers at the front entrance as your way in?”

Evidently not sensing his displeasure, both women eagerly nodded.

“It’ll be _soooo_ easy, Ca-leb! Really! Not a thing to worry about!” Jester sounded so certain, it made Caleb’s stomach turn.

“Jester, I really don’t agree—“

“Oh, Caleb. You worry too much! Honestly, I have so much faith in our plan, that I think Jester could do it solo and she’d be perfectly fine—“ Nott continued, an easy smile on her face, as she leaned back in her chair. 

She almost tumbled to the floor when Caleb’s fist slammed against the table.

“No, and that’s final,” Caleb growled, before getting up and leaving.

Walking away, the silence of the war room followed him all the way back to his room. Caleb began to pace as his words came back to mock him and sank into the sadness of his bones. 

_They were only trying to be nice and help you…_

“They were going to go in and get themselves killed. For what? A book?”

_It was more than just any book. It held the secrets you need_…

“Their lives are not worth it. Neither Nott’s nor Jester’s. I won’t risk it.”

_But if you could just look at it one more time_…

“I might still be able to. Essek could try and bring me in again.”

_But he’d be looking over your shoulder the whole time_…

“I could deal with it.”

_They were so sure. So sure, they thought Jester could go alone_…

Anger flared through him at the thought, as his mind swiftly brought up the premonition it had earlier.

Jester appearing in the archive. 

Jester walking through those corridors, looking for the place that Caleb had described, for the book that Caleb wanted. 

Jester, reaching for it on the shelf, her fingers caressing the spine just as a guard rounds the corner and spots her. 

Jester, in a panic, casting something and failing, causing the guard to call for back up. 

Jester, beginning to run away, to go back the way she came, to get close enough to where she was to escape once again.

Jester, about to cast, struck in the back with a rain of arrows, her signature green magic dying before she can get the words out.

Jester, reaching out, calling out for someone, anyone to help her, just as the guards descend…

“No, no, no, no, no, no…” Caleb collapsed against his bed, bringing his knees to his chest, and pressing his face into them, rocking softly back and forth, soothing himself. “It is just a nightmare, just a scenario. Jester is in the Xhorhouse, fine and probably a bit sad at my outburst, but she is fine. Ja, she is fine.”

Leaning his head back on his bed, Caleb sighed, letting himself smile softly at the thought of her, the little blue tiefling with the mischievous smile and bright eyes. What was she doing right now?

It was Caleb’s favorite game: what is Jester up to now? 

Was she in the kitchen, trying to make pastries again? Or, maybe joining Beau in the hot tub? She could be in the rooftop garden with Caduceus, listening to him talk about plant care or maybe just sketching in the nicely lit area. Or maybe she was painting a new mural on her wall? That would be something that Jester would do while pensive. Caleb wondered what she would paint on his wall. Cats? Probably. Fire? Unlikely. A peaceful sunset with fluffy clouds and warm tones, something so calm that both he and her could look at and feel at peace under? It was a lovely thought, but did Jester know him well enough to know he wanted that? Had he _let_ Jester know him well enough to allow that?

A soft knocking awoke Caleb from his reverie. “Ja?” 

“Hello, Caleb! It’s me, Jester. Can I come in?” even through the door, her voice was lilting and bright. Maybe not particularly happy, but still on the scale.

He quickly stood, brushing off his coat as he walked towards his door. Opening it, he found her, playing with a few navy strands as she worried her bottom lip. To say that the sight made his heart stutter was a great understatement.

“Jester, what are you doing here?” he heard himself say, wincing at the sudden wave of sadness that passed over her features. It quickly faded back into the worried expression.

“Oh… I just wanted to say…umm…” she continued to twist the hair strand around her finger in a distracting manner.

As she knit her brows together in frustration, Caleb opened the door further, “Would you like to come in?”

“Sure!” she said brightly, a happy smile stretching across her face as she walked in, glancing around the space. “Oh Caleb, it’s so full of books in here! Which is so funny because the library is right outside!”

“Well, this is my personal collection of favorites,” Caleb said, leaning back against the doorway, watching Jester pick up and read the titles of the books he had scattered around.

“‘The Splitting of Creation’” she read aloud, before glancing back at him, mischief in her eyes, “Is this a porn book?”

He chuckled, shaking his head slowly, “Your mind is an odd place, Blueberry. What makes you think ‘the Splitting of Creation’ is smut?”

“Well, you never know what kind of freaky stuff people are into! I mean, my mamma sometimes had some mornings where she was sore all over cuz, you know, all the sex,” Jester said the last part in a whisper, wiggling her eyebrows the whole time. Caleb just had to chuckle at her expression: she was just so unafraid to discuss such matters, it was refreshing.

However, his brows knit together when he realized she never answered his question. He slowly approached her, “Jester, why are you here?”

“Oh. Yes. That,” Jester responded, placing the book in her hand back on top of the pile next to his desk, her back to him. At this angle, he could clearly see tail twitch around, as though she didn’t want to answer the question. Leaning over to grab another book, Jester leaned back against the lip of the table, flipping through it mindlessly, “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t mad at me…or both of us.”

Caleb’s mouth went dry. _Of course she thought you were yelling at her, you fool. Jester is kind and sweet and caring, and you made her feel like you hated her. What a cruel man you are, so very ugly and unkind._

He got up and walked over to her, wanting to reach out for her, but losing his nerve only inches away, “Of course, I’m not mad, Jester. I just…was, uh, worried.”

“But, Ca-leb!” Jester said, placing the book back down unceremoniously, grabbing his hands, “We know you need that book for your studies and we wanted to make sure you could have more time with it!”

“It isn’t that important.” Caleb couldn’t take his eyes off their hands: his with their calloused tips and pale skin. Hers, a lighter blue in the palms, but so soft that it rivaled the silks from Marquet. 

“Yes, it is, Caleb!” Jester gave his hands a squeeze, causing him to glance back into those violet eyes, full of care and determination, “I know, it’s super important. Or else, you wouldn’t have almost begged Essek for more time in the library.”

“It’s not important enough to lose you,” a spark of confidence finding him for a moment, before watching her eyes widen a fraction. Caleb glanced away from her, “Ah, either of you.”

“Caleb, we can do it: Nott and I. She’s super sneaky and I have the Traveller on my side,” she responded, her voice more serious and certainty than he’d heard in a long while, “If you want it, we can get it for you.”

Caleb gave her hands a squeeze, before continuing just as seriously, “Jester, I don’t want either of you getting into trouble over this. It could…put all of us in jeopardy.”

He would’ve been lying if he said he didn’t miss the feeling of her hands in his, as she pulled away from him, “If you’re certain, we won’t.”

Caleb gave brief nod, watching her curl a strand of hair behind an ear, “Ja, I am certain.”

“Then, we won’t,” Jester said, a small smile on her lips, but sadness clear in her eyes. She began to walk towards the room, making Caleb feel as if he’d disappointed her. 

Before she fully passed, Caleb felt a hand grab his arm. Glancing down at her, he found those eyes gleaming with determination and something unreadable once again. “Caleb, just know, I will do _anything_ you need, okay?” 

He felt his mouth go dry again, for an entirely different reason then before. Caleb let his eyes drift down to her lips for a moment. If he was a slightly weaker man, he would’ve leaned in and taken them, claiming that he needed them to himself later. But, as he was only slightly stronger than that, he met her eyes once more and simply nodded.

“Good,” Jester said, her smile brightening once more, before she leaned up and pressed those lips to his stubbled cheek, “Goodnight, Caleb.”

As the door closed behind her, Caleb finally found the breath to say, “Goodnight, Blueberry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And guess who didn't write for the last couple days because they wanted to bake instead? Yeah, I don't think I'll ever be on the proper day...oh well!


	8. Can You Stay? (Caduceus & Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caduceus hears some sniffling coming from their tree-beacon and naturally he's unsure why the sound is coming from the Nein's resident favorite tiefling.

Caduceus heard Jester before he saw her.

Not that was what was particularly odd to him: Jester was easily the loudest member of the team. The new cloak she’d commissioned had beading that resembled bells on the edges and often led to her making a soft tinkling noise when she skipped through the house during their rare days of solace. This physical noise added on to the loudness that was her Southern accented voice, that was often louder than not—unless they were steal thing, of course. Jester was passionate and affectionate, not dumb.

However, what Caduceus had found odd about finding Jester in the tree of the rooftop garden was that she was sniffling.

Was she sick? She hadn’t been sick when he’d seen her earlier today, when he’d given her a cup of tea during breakfast. To be honest, he hadn’t seen her sick with anything before. Maybe it was Nicodranian trait?

Maybe it was the cold? No, that wasn’t possible either. Jester was immune to cold weather: he’d seen her barely shiver while they’d been at the Kiln, despite the fact that they’d landed in the middle of a snowstorm. 

The answer came when the first tear fell onto his upturned face.

Surprised, Cad touched a hand to his cheek, almost confirming to himself that the tear was real. However, touching the now lightly damp patch of fur on his face, his brow wrinkled further.

Jester Lavorre, the ever-smiling, the ever-bright, the ever-happy, was crying.

Furrowing his brow, Caduceus looked up at her from under the tree. She was only up a few branches above his head, but it was clear that she’d wanted to be alone with her sniffling. But, why?

Before he’d realized it, he’d started to climb the tree. 

It wasn’t particularly difficult, as he’d done it constantly as a child. What else was he supposed to do as one of the youngest in a family of clerics of the Wildmother? They were taught to experience nature and what more natural way was there than climbing a tree? Despite his skill, Caduceus knew that it was beyond him to perform the climb quietly. He was a large humanoid at nearly 7 feet, and he knew he wasn’t as particularly stealthy as other members of his team. But, in this instance, he was happy for his loudness, because Jester was already sitting up facing him when he sat on the branch across from hers.

“Hello, Jester,” Caduceus said, leaning a hand against the trunk of the tree, both to steady himself as well as to give a silent thanks to the tree for allowing them the chance to sit in it.

Jester gave him a large smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “Hi, Caduceus! Came up to enjoy the view?”

He glanced out at the surrounding city, his eyes widening in surprise. From up here, the city really did look lovely, a sea of fireflies flickering below them. “Huh. It is pretty up here.”

“You sound surprised,” Jester giggled, bringing Cad’s attention back to her.

He reached out, brows pinching together again, “Jester, why were you crying?”

She seems so startled by his question, she almost loses balance on her branch. Cad held onto her outstretched hand as she readjusted herself to sit more firmly. Once steady, she let go of his hand to play with the hem of her coat, her voice high as she answered him, “What? I wasn’t crying!”

Caduceus smiled at her softly, as she moved from the hem to the ends of her hair, looking at everything but him. He found that when people who lied as seldom as Jester did lied, silence was the best avenue at finding the truth. And Caduceus was brilliant at staying silent.

After awhile of simply sitting with her, Jester finally let out a long held sigh, slumping back again the tree, “Fine. I _was_ crying.”

“And why were you? I didn’t think anyone in the house had been mean to you,” he said, firmly believing the fact. Yes, the other members of the Nein weren’t always the kindest individuals to the general populous, but this statement did not apply to those within their tight knit group, especially Jester.

Jester shook her head, but the small smile on her face still didn’t reach her eyes, “No, everyone has been very nice. We’re all, like the nicest people in Wildemount.”

“I don’t think I agree with that, but all right,” Caduceus chuckled, leaning back against the tree as well.

The two admired the lights of the city before Jester broke the silence once again, “I miss my mom.”

Caduceus nodded. Now, _that_ he understood well. How many seasons had passed since he’d seen his own family? His brothers? His sisters? His aunts and uncles? His parents? He would’ve been lying—which Caduceus seldom could bring himself to do—if he’d said that he hadn’t hoped to see his family in the Kiln. Even just one of them. The fact that only three of his extensive family had appeared there worried him more than he wanted to admit aloud.

“And I know, I _know_ that it’s stupid, because we _just_ saw her when we passed through Yussa’s circle in Nicodranas! I should be happy that we get to see her so much! I’m so _lucky_ to see her so much! But, every time I see her, I miss her so much more than I did last time,” Jester wiped at her eyes, before curling them around herself as her tail wrapped around one of her legs. 

“I just miss her so much, Caduceus, and being with the Nein isn’t the same. I love you all, too, but none of you are my mom. And, I feel terrible saying that! Fjord doesn’t even _know_ who his parents are! And Beau’s parents _suck_! Like _sooooooooo_ much! But I just miss her because, you know, it was always just me and her. And now that I’m gone, she’s probably so lonely. And that just makes everything so much worse! Because I didn’t _want_ to leave the Chateau yet! I mean, yes I _kind_ of did, because it got so _boring _sometimes. But I didn’t actually _want_ to leave, you know? Arghhhhh! I can’t believe I’m just ranting about this to you! I don’t want you to be sad, too!” Jester dropped her face in her hands, before groaning loudly.

Caduceus smiled. He hadn’t expected her to dump all of that on him right that second, but it seemed to be a bit therapeutic for the tiefling. He reached out and patted her arm gently, “It’s okay, Jester. Sometimes it helps to talk about your feelings.”

“Yeah, but _I_ don’t like talking about _my_ feelings! I’m the one people are supposed to tell their troubles, too,” she responded, flopping back against the tree, before tilting her head to narrow her eyes at Caduceus, “Did you just Zone of Truth me?”

His eyebrows moved towards his hairline for a moment before pinching back together, “No?”

She kept her eyes narrowed for a moment longer before moving them back to the horizon with a sigh, “Of course, you didn’t. That was mean of me. I’m sorry, Caduceus.”

“I wasn’t insulted. But, it’s okay, Jester. I think you needed to get that off your chest.”

“Yeah, I think it did, too,” the relieved smile that stretched across her cheeks made Caduceus smile in return. He’d succeeded in helping her feel better. It was sometimes very nice to succeed in one’s goals.

After several moments of silence, Caduceus thought it was best to leave Jester to her relief. However, as he began to move to dismount his branch, an almost teal hand grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

“Can you stay?” she whispered, the smile she wore finally reaching those violet eyes of hers.

Caduceus patted the hand with one of his own, “Of course.”

And, that was the last words they said as they let the false nighttime settled around them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who is really shitty about staying on track with this and will probably inevitably mesh some days together? This chick! *finger guns away while walking backwards back into my room*


	9. There is a Certain Taste to It (Beau & Jester & Fjord)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jester loves pastries: but can she actually make them?
> 
> Set in the Modern College AU from Ch. 2 a year after. Fjord, Beau and Jess share an apartment off campus

The kitchen was an absolute disaster and Beau and Fjord should have been absolutely livid about it. 

When Jester had asked them if she could use the communal kitchen for the day, she’d promised them she wouldn’t make a mess. More specifically, “too big of a mess”. And, yet, there she sat in the middle of the linoleum, smiling at the oven as parts of her hair was stuck together by something sticky, egg shells littered the counter and flour coated almost every single surface around her.

However, the happy giggles that filled the space from their roommate almost made the knowledge that they were going to be cleaning the kitchen all evening worth it.

_Almost._

Jester had been homesick for weeks and neither Beau nor Fjord had known how exactly to fix this turn of events. It was nearing the middle of the winter quarter, so there was no way for Jester to fly home for a couple days and still be able to pass her midterm exams. Of course, as an art major, her “exams” were more project-based then studying-based, but if asked about them, Jester would explain them in such complex detail that both of her roommates agreed that her projects were much worse than their exams.

It had been on a whim that Fjord had suggested that she make something from home for them.

Technically, Fjord was from the same area of Wildemount as her but he wasn’t nearly as attached to Port Damali as Jester had been to Nicodranas. Here, at the University of Xhorhas, was where Fjord had found a home, made friends and maybe-sorta-kinda was developing a crush on someone. But! That was besides the point, because Jester was sad and needed something to cheer her up. Thus, he’d suggested the bear claws.

Beau had immediately elbowed him in the side, shaking her head sharply, but the damage was already done: Jester was _on-board_ for making them. Later, Beau would tell him that Jester had zero experience in the kitchen, having had cooks make them for her. Despite this, the next morning Jester had come back from the store with four more grocery bags than usual and had claimed the kitchen as her own.

“Come on, Beau, what was I _supposed_ to do? She’s been moping around the apartment for weeks!” he whispered to her, as they watched Jester happily waited for the bear claws to finish baking.

Beau shot him another glare, before gesturing wildly around the kitchen, “You could’ve suggested for her mom to send her some from their personal chef!”

He rubbed his hand across his face, “I _really_ should’ve thought about that.”

“Yeah, you should’ve just asked me. I did live with them for a couple years,” Beau rolled her eyes, before leaning back against the wall with a grimace, “So, what are you planning on saying when she makes us taste them?”

Fjord felt the blood drain from his face, “You think she’s gonna make us taste them?”

“I’m going with,” Beau said, framing the words in the air, “‘There is a certain taste to it.’”

“But…I’m fairly certain I heard her say that baking soda didn’t sound important. And neither was the vanilla!” Fjord hissed at Beau, who shrugged.

“It’s not like I’m actually gonna swallow it. We’ll probably die.”

“_Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you!”_ came from Jester’s phone, causing her to release a high squeal.

“Guys, guys, guys! My bear claws are done! Come taste them!” came her screech from only feet away from them.

“Beau, is she _seriously_ gonna make us eat them?! I'm too young to die,” Fjord hissed, as Beau shrugged and walked slowly into the kitchen. “_Beau?!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two in a day?! What is this?!


	10. Listen, I Can't Explain It (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fjord just wanted a nice night out with the cute girl he'd met last week.  
The last thing he expected was to be running from baddies that were made of black goo and could be lit on fire by a cup of water.  
What the hell has he just walked into?!

“What the _hell_ was that, Jester?!” Fjord shouted, as he pulled his arm out of the much shorter woman’s grip.

She looked back at him, crossing her arms across the front of her chest as she glanced around the near empty street they were walking down, “Fjord, not right now. Come on, let’s get back to my apartment—“

He pulled his hand away again when Jester reached for him, shaking his head and backing away. The look of hurt that flashed across her face almost made him regret the motion, but he held firm. “No, I am _not_ going anywhere with you until you explain what the _hell_ that thing was back there.”

“Listen, I can’t…” Jester took a deep calming breath, any shreds of that happy-go-lucky girl he’d met last week gone for the moment, “…I can’t explain it. You’ll have to trust me. Now, let’s get inside before any more show up.” Seeming to see Fjord’s lack of movement, she sighed before adding, “It doesn’t have to be my apartment. It can be yours. But we have to get inside somewhere _now_.”

With the threat of more of those tar-like creatures coming for them, Fjord let her lead him away. Observing her from behind, he wondered where that carefree woman from last week was. As the newest hire at Squalleater, Inc, Fjord was to be Avantika, the Regional Manager, personal assistant. As her assistant, he was getting coffee for the crew when a bubbly young woman behind him asked if he needed any help carrying the rather massive order. Thankful for her kindness and enjoying the conversation they’d had all the way up to the front desk, Fjord had asked her to join him for lunch. And Jester had said yes. 

Walking presumably towards her apartment, Fjord found his voice, “Jester, what were those things? Please.”

Releasing a rather put-upon sigh, Jester gave him a brief glance over her shoulder before looking back ahead, “You’re going to think I’m crazy or that you’re going crazy or that the whole world is crazy if I tell you.”

“Too late for that. I just saw someone—some _thing_— pour itself out of a solid brick wall to come after us after you lit a guy _on fire_ just by throwing water in his face,” Fjord’s chuckle sounded slightly unhinged, “I already feel like I might be drugged.”

Fjord almost slammed into Jester as she stopped right before him. She whipped around to face him, grabbing both sides of his face and pulling it down towards hers. He would’ve thought the motion was romantic if not for the tragic sadness that filled her eyes, “Fjord, if I tell you what they are, you won’t be invisible anymore. They will see you because you can see them and you won’t ever be safe again.”

He simply just stood there, staring back at her.

“Fjord, I need to know: are you willing to lose that?” Jester’s gaze didn’t less in their intensity.

“Do you think I’d be safe from them even if you didn’t tell me?” he heard himself ask in a much calmer voice than he’d expected.

Her brow furrowed in frustration as she glanced away from him, “I…I don’t know. I’ve never been attacked while with someone who wasn’t like me before…” she looked back in his face, before letting go, “It’s almost like they saw you, too, even though you didn’t know what they were.”

“So, you’re saying I’m already fucked?” he felt his lunch from earlier threaten to show itself on the pavement in front of them.

Jester seemed to consider the statement for a moment before giving a stiff nod, “Maybe, yes.”

“Well… then…” all the bravado that had filled him, seemed to leak from him as Jester took his hand once more.

“Fjord,” Jester said, her violet eyes still looking torn, as she took a deep breath before saying with a seriousness that didn’t mesh with her neon hair or petite form, “Those were demons. And I’m a demon hunter.”

“Well, fuck,” he heard himself say before promptly passing out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really weird Demonhunter!AU I came up with this morning when look at the prompt. Apologies for the random universe Fjorester fans XD


	11. It's Not Always Like This (Caleb/Jester and Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In pursuit of the items they need to conquer their latest foe, the Mighty Nein have split off into two groups to cover Wildemount more quickly.  
However, even the best laid plans have troubles, as Caleb, Jester and Fjord find themselves fighting a massive beast with only the three of them.

Caleb wrapped his arm around Jester’s waist, lifting her with much effort, as Fjord distracted the beast on the other side, covering their escape easily as another Eldritch Blast slammed into the bloody maw. The words hadn’t been spoken aloud, but as the two had watched Jester fall, there eyes had met across the battlefield, both in a panic as the beast got in two more claw attacks on her prone form. Seeing the pool of blood widen around her form made the moment that much more clear: they needed to get her out of there and fast.

Once Caleb had pulled Jester around the corner from the beast, he had a chance to examine the wounds, wincing as the dark fabrics she wore darkened further. 

“I am sorry, Blueberry,” Caleb said, ripping the petticoat of her skirt, to tie around the claw marks across her chest. However, despite the tightness, the makeshift bandages quickly soaked through.

Standing to better pat his pockets to find something, anything to help her, Caleb felt the panic settling in, “No, no, no, no, no.”

“It’s not always like this,” came a weak voice from below him.

Caleb stopped his ministrations as he fell to his knees in front of her once again, gripping her hands, he smiled, “_Danke de gottern_! You’re awake, now we can—“

Jester shook her head slightly, the bandages more red than white around her, “No, sometimes it’s Fjord with me instead of you. But it’s always hurts more when it’s with you, Caleb.”

“Jester…Blueberry, what are you speaking of?” Caleb pressed a hand to her cool cheek, his eyes widened in alarm as tears began to pool in them.

“I don’t want to die, Caleb,” Jester’s voice was watery, “I’ve dreamt about it before and I don’t want to die with you here. I don’t want you seeing another person you know die in front of you.”

“Jester, you… you can’t die…you won’t die,” Caleb felt the hand in his lessen its grip, as those violet eyes began to fade ever so slightly. “No, no, no, Jester. Please not yet. No, please.”

“I’m…sorry,” were her final words, as she fell slack against the tree.

Caleb wouldn’t have been able to control the Web of Fire if he wanted to. With tears streaming down his face, his hands had already created the Cat’s Cradle and had ensnared the beast, the _monster_ that had killed…

He felt himself fall to his knees as the web tightened.

… _that had killed_…

“_JESTER!”_ Caleb screamed, as the beast burnt to a crisp, the tears falling freely on to the ground below.

—————————

Caleb came to with Fjord shaking him. “Caleb, we need to move, _now_!”

Catching sight of the steady track of tears on the half-orc’s face, Caleb knew Fjord had seen her too. What had happened. How it was over. How they were left behind.

“And where will we go?” Caleb mused aloud, “To Nicodranas to give her back to her mother? I’m sure her mother will be put off by our presence.”

Fjord’s bottom lip quivered as he continued to shake Caleb, “We can still save her! We can bring her to Caduceus. He can still_ try_—“

Caleb’s eyes snapped up to Fjord’s, “We’re on the opposite side of the continent from him and the rest of Nein. We don’t even know _exactly_ where he is. And I only have one trip’s worth of supplies. She’s as good as dead.”

Fjord’s slap knocked Caleb to the forest floor.

Pressing a hand to the offending cheek, Caleb looked up at Fjord, who seemed to vibrate with anger, “We can still try. She’s not dead unless we fail. We don’t lose her until we fail.”

From Caleb’s seat on the ground, he saw Jester’s body, her face still frozen in its sadness for him. Not for herself: for Caleb, who would lose another person in his life. Another _love_ in his life. 

_It’s not always like this_, she had whispered to him.

And, staring at the corpse, Caleb now saw more in the phrase than he had before: it _doesn’t have to be_ like this.

Standing up, Caleb stared Fjord in the face for a moment, “Do you remember Dashilla’s cave?”

Fjord’s brows narrowed in puzzlement, “When I swore to you a favor? Yes.”

“I am using it now,” Caleb rolled up his sleeve before reaching out for Fjord, “I want you to swear to me that you will help me do anything necessary to bring Jester back.”

Without pause, Fjord’s arm gripped Caleb’s own, “I swear that I will. We can’t lose her.”

“And we won’t. That, I promise you.”


	12. What If I Don't See It? (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guinevere has received a letter from her father that he will be arriving in port today from a three month journey to Marquet with Uncle Orly. Mama and her are going to wait there until Papa's boat arrives!

Guinevere fiddled with the edge of her letter as her mother went to retrieve some pastries for the two of them as they waited. Rereading it once again, Gwen gave a little sigh at the contents. The letter had said what day to be waiting on the docks, but not the time the ship would arrive. She knew he couldn’t have known for certain the time.

But that meant that her and Mama would be at the docks all day and that was _boring!_

“Mama, how do we know if Papa and Uncle Orly are back?” Gwen asked, climbing up and sitting on her mother’s lap, never letting her eyes leave the horizon.

“Oh, my little Emerald, let me tell you how,” her mother said, pressing a blue cheek to Guinevere’s teal one as her mother pointed to the top most sail of some of the ships, “Do you see that flag up there? The one that is so pretty and colorful?”

“Yes, Mama! They’re all so beautiful!” Gwen replied, standing up on her mother’s thighs, “That one is pink like Uncle Caduceus’ hair! Oh, and that one is pretty yellow, just like Auntie Veth’s favorite dress!”

“Yes, they are, Gwennie,” her mother blew a raspberry on her cheek, “Every ship has a different mix of colors and shapes on their flag. That’s how we’ll know that Daddy’s ship is coming in.”

“What does Daddy’s flag look like? Is it blue like you?” her black curls blown back from the cool breeze off the ocean, turning to her mother excitedly, “Or, maybe, it is teal like me, blue like you, and green like Daddy!”

“You are so creative, my Emerald!” her mother hugged her tighter, before pulling back to tap Gwen on her nose, “Actually, your papa has a big ole’ wave in the middle of a shell.”

“Like that symbol we have in that cupboard, next to the Traveler!” Gwen said happily, as her mother rushed to shush her. Gwen pressed her hands to her mouth before adding a bit quieter, “I’m not supposed to talk about the, am I?”

“Just because the Wildmom and Traveler are just _too_ cool for anyone but cool people to know about,” her mother whispered, a sparkle in her violet eyes. “But yes, just like that symbol we have in the house. That is what Papa has on his flag.”

Satisfied with this answer, Gwen leaned back against her mother as she sat back down once more. Papa had told Gwen all about how nice the Wildmom was, just like Mama told her about how fun the Traveler was. She drew pictures of her parents symbols to tape up in the cupboard next to the statues, and both parents had showered her with kisses. Gwen loved when Papa was home so much: she wished that he would stay home more.

At this thought, Gwen leaned her head back to look at her mama with worry, “Mama, what if I don’t see it? What if I don’t see Papa’s colors today?”

Her mother stiffened, but quickly gave Gwen a soft smile, “Then, that means that we’ll come back tomorrow, because Papa might’ve gotten held up a little. And if he’s not back tomorrow, then I will send him a message to ask him when we should come to the dock again.”

“Oh. That’s good!” Gwen said, leaning back on her mama’s chest, enjoying the way that her mother’s arms tightened around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her hair. 

“Gwennie?” came her mother’s voice, muffled from her hair.

“Yes, Mama?”

“Your papa will always come home to us. You know that, right?”

Gwen gave her mother the brightest smile that she could, “Of course, he will!”

“Good,” said her mother, pressing a kiss to Gwen’s cheek, before pointing back to the horizon, “Because if we keep on looking on that horizon, we will see him coming home.”

———————————————

He sat in his Captain’s quarters as he separated out the papers he would need to give the dock master once they came into port, compared to the papers that held the full inventory of his vessel. It wasn’t that Fjord didn’t _want_ the dock master to know about the goods he carried for the right buyers in addition to those that he would be bringing to market. But, he didn’t need the dockmaster to know just yet.

To be truthful, he’d sorted this out many days ago. With Orly at the helm, many seasoned sailors on his crew and protection wards keeping pirate eyes away from their ship courtesy of his worried wife and Caduceus, he didn’t have much that he had to do on the vessel while they were between ports. However, running his hands over the papers kept his mind occupied, so that he wouldn’t wear a hole into the boards of his ship as he paced the surface. 

This had been the longest trip he’d made since Guinevere had been born, and he had to say the almost three months away had been torturous. Orly had assured Fjord that he had been necessary for the voyage, as those traders in Marquet were more likely to respect Fjord and his power than anyone else on the crew. And with how rarely Marquet items made it to the shores of Wildemount, the whole crew was likely to profit handsomely from the endeavor. 

But the three months still had been hard. Even with the weekly messages from Jester, he still ached to hold her. And with her mentions of Gwen, the ache only deepened. 

_Almost home_, repeated over and over in his mind, the smile on his face growing on its own, as he reached out for the mini portrait that he had on the desk. He let his finger brush the image of Jester with Guinevere in her arms, _I’m almost home_. 

“Captain, we can see the port now,” came a voice from near the door, bringing Fjord’s attention away from his girls.

Fjord was up before the sailor could fully move out of the way, already on deck as the lines of the Nicodranas came in to view. Throwing out his hand, the Star Razor appeared, leaving a soft cold sensation as it settled into Fjord’s hand. “Orly, keep her steady.”

“A-aye, aye, Captain,” came the tortle’s reply, the amusement in his voice evident as he told the sailors, “H-hold onto s-something.”

Without looking to see if everyone was stable, Fjord tightened his hand around the blade, and brought it up, feeling the water below the ship respond to the motion a hair later. The ship surged forward, approaching the port at a much higher speed. When one surge slowed, Fjord would lift his arm once more, calling another swell to bring them closer.

“C-captain, that is f-fine. D-Don’t want to crash in to the dock now do we?” Orly said, as Fjord started to pull his arm up a fourth time. However, as the tortle glanced back at the dock, his grin widened, “Well, I d-do believe our captain has a w-welcoming party.”

Not caring of how he looked, Fjord rushed to the ropes, pulling himself up, as he leaned out to stare at the dock Orly motioned towards. Seeing the bright spot of blue with tiny mix of teal, his heart leapt. 

They’d come.

They’d come to the docks to wait for him.

It took all of Fjord’s willpower to stay on the ship until they safely reached the dock. However, it did not mean that he’d had the strength to wait until the ship was anchored and the gangplank was put up.

Dropping down onto the edge of the dock from his perch, Fjord felt his knees buckle slightly, but that quickly left his mind as a yellow wrapped, teal tiefling ran towards him.

“Papa!” came Gwen’s scream, as she raced with open arms towards him, almost tackling him to the ground from his kneeling position. “You’re back!”

“Well, of course, I am, Emerald. I did tell you in my letter that I would arrive today,” Fjord said, rubbing his nose against his daughter’s, getting a giggle out of her, “Did Mama read you the letter?”

“No, I read it all by myself!” she shouted proudly, her smile bright as Fjord lifted her from the ground.

“No, my Gwennie can’t read well yet!” Fjord said, in mock surprise as his daughter—_his_ daughter!—giggled before descending into peals of laughter as he started to tickle her, “Did you learn to read? Did you?”

“Yes, Gwen _obviously_ had the best teacher ever,” came a teasing voice from in front of him, making the smile on his face grow wider until he caught the lack of mirth in those familiar violet eyes, “How fairs the seas, Captain Tusktooth?”

“Is that your captain name, Papa? Tusktooth?” Gwen asked, pulling away to look him in the eye.

Fjord chuckled, hoisting her higher as his gaze settled back on his wife who still hadn’t come any closer, “No, but your mama always did like to call me that.”

“You were gone for a long time,” was all Jester said, as the distance between them didn’t lessen.

“I was,” he nodded.

“Guinevere missed you.”

“I did! I so very much did!” Gwen said, hugging her father tight, before whispering, “It wasn’t the same to hear Mama talk to you. I miss our story time. You do the voices_ so_ good.”

“And I missed you, too, my little Emerald,” Fjord tightened his hold on Guinevere, as he met those steely violet eyes again, “Did Mama miss me?”

“Oh, yes! She missed you so much, too! Auntie Beau, Auntie Yasha and Uncle Caleb had to come by and take care of me for a couple days because Mama missed you so much,” Gwennie said, as Fjord’s eyes widened, as understanding creeped in.

_Her father…_

“Guinevere, Papa didn’t need to know that,” Jester’s voice was serious, as water gathered at the edges with each blink, “He was working…and he didn’t _mean_ to leave us for so long. He doesn’t need to worry about us being okay without him.”

All the stiffness that held him in place vanished as Fjord closed the distance between them, scooping Jester into his arms. “Jessie, I missed you so much, too. I missed you so, so much.”

Once touching her, he felt the tension ease from her as well, tears beginning to flow down her face as he held her, “Oh, Fjord!”

Feeling Jester wrap her arms around his shoulders as Guinevere wrapped her own around his neck, Fjord kissed the top of his wife’s head before pressing his face in the space between her horns. 

Home.

Fjord was finally home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is Day 12's prompt.  
Yes, I am a sucker for Fjorester.  
Yes, I am still technically behind.
> 
> This has been a list of facts.


	13. I Never Knew It Could Be This Way (Beau/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jester is absolutely smitten with the hot, tan lady with the abs that comes in to the Star of the Sea Cafe during her shift every week. Hopefully, during Jessie's solo shift today, that hot lady will come in...
> 
> Modern Coffee Shop AU that nobody asked for <3

Hearing the bell from door to the cafe tinkle lightly, Jester smoothed out her pink maid dress before turning around with a bright smile, “Welcome to the Star of the Sea Coffee. How can I—Oh, hello again.”

“Hey,” said the woman gruffly in reply, her navy cropped sweater, giving Jester a very clear view of her well-toned abs. It took physical effort for Jester to keep eye contact.

“Do you go to the gym?” Jester blurted out before her hand could clampdown on her mouth.

The woman raised an eyebrow, but letting the Top 40 play in the background.

“I mean, mostly because you are always sweaty whenever you come in—Not that it’s not a bad look! I mean, sweaty literally means you’re hot! I mean hot-hot, not like physically hot! I mean, not that you _aren’t_ physically attractive—“ Jester’s mouth just continued to go, until the woman’s chuckle started.

“Yeah, I work at the gym across the street. I’m a personal trainer,” the woman raked a hand through her hair, almost perfectly mimicking the cover of one of Jester’s romance novels. 

“Oh, yeah, cool,” Jester responded automatically, feeling her cheeks turn red.

The woman shrugged, “It pays the bills,” glancing up at the board behind Jester pointedly before looking back at her.

“Oh! Yes! You wanted to order something?” Jester said, whipping out her notepad, “So what would you like?”

“Uh, well, I’m actually ordering for the whole crew over there, so this may take a while…” the woman began, before pulling out her phone and beginning to list out the individual orders.

“…And one extra large, caramel latte,” Jester read back to her, before glancing back up at that constantly smirking tan-face. It took effort for her not to look down at those super hot abs of hers.

“Actually, can we change that last one to something else? I don’t feel like that today,” the woman said with a grimace. 

“Okay, and what do you want instead? We have the matcha frozen latte…and the chocolate chip milkshake…Oooo! And the caramel frappe! You might like that one! It’s like a frozen version of the latte!” Jester said, brightly. Pulling out her own personal cup, she offered it to the woman, "I made myself one today. Want to try it?"

The woman shrugged,  “Couldn’t hurt to try, I guess.” She casually took a sip as her eyes blew open, "I never knew it could be this way..."

“Oh yeah! Coffee is so much better when it has loads of sugar in it!" Jester responded, before clearing her throat, “So, what name should I put on the order?”

“Beau,” she said, before sticking out her hand, surprising Jester into looking up, “And yours?”

“Jester,” Jester replied, feeling her grin grow.

———————————————————

“Finally! Our drinks! What did they do, milk the cow themselves?” Fjord said, as Beau walked in with the trays of drinks, pulling out his iced matcha latte.

Beau shot him a glare, before handing her step-brother Caleb behind the desk his black coffee, “Shut the fuck up, Fjord. Jester was working by herself today and it was like ten drinks.”

“Jester? What kind of name—“ Nott, who was wiping down equipment, started before Caduceus, the resident physical therapist, lifted her up and turned her towards the back of the gym.

“Thank you for ordering me tea, Beauregard,” Caduceus said, before adding with a smile, “So you got to ask her name today?”

Beau took a long sip of an excessively decorated drink, not looking at him, “Yeah, there wasn’t a line. So, I thought, might as well, you know?”

“Well, I’m happy for you, Beau,” Cad said, grabbing his cup, adding as he walked away, “I wouldn’t toss your cup out before you look at it, though.”

Pulling her cup away to look at it better, Beau blushed because there, next to her name, was a heart and Jester’s phone number.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO ACTUALLY POSTED THIS ON THE DAY IT IS!!! *fireworks go off, celebratory horns*


	14. I Can't Come Back (Caleb & Beau)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jester has finally had her baby and Caleb panics.   
Cue Empire Siblings being supportive and also giving the hard truths of the world

The baby was born and Caleb should’ve been happy, thrilled even.

Caduceus had been there to assist in the birthing process and Jester, the mother, had made it through with only crushing a couple bones in his hands. Though exhausted and sweating profusely, she still looked like the most beautiful thing in the world with her daughter in her arms.

“Una Marion Widogast-Lavorre,” Jester had announced to the room between her sobs of joy. Making eye contact with Caleb, her eyes so soft and her smile bright, “I thought we should honor both our mothers, don’t you think?”

Tears immediately rushed into Caleb’s eyes and before he could fully comprehend where he was, Caleb had left the room, the Chateau and was quickly approaching the docks. Taking a seat heavily on the dock’s edge, he pressed a hand to his chest, wondering if there was a spell to calm a beating heart. 

If not, it was likely he would have a heart attack right here and collapse into the sea and never be heard of again and Jester—_Oh Jester—_will think he abandoned her, which was not his intent! Caleb just couldn’t…he couldn’t handle this…this new fact of being. Caleb Widogast: orphan, friend, husband and, now…now…_now_…

_“What the actual fuck, man?!_” a familiar voice said, grabbing him by his shoulder to standing. Gritting her teeth, Caleb met her narrowed eyes, “Jester names your _fucking_ kid after your _fucking _Mom and the first thing you do is run away to the docks. Are you _trying _to make her abandonment issues _worse?!_” 

“I…I…I…” Caleb opened his mouth before the tears started once again, and he found himself sobbing into Beau’s coat. As he sobbed, Beau just stood there, letting him use her expositor robes as a snot rag. 

“…okay I was not expecting this…” Beau said, before Caleb’s back was awkwardly patted, “There, there.”

He let out a watery chuckle as he pulled away, brushing at his eyes to stop the tear tracks. “_Danke_, Beau. I’m feeling a bit better now.”

“Eh, can’t be mad at you for not wanting to cry in front of people,” Beau shrugged, before patting his arm, “Let’s get heading back.”

Caleb felt the blood drain from his face, as he automatically said, “I can’t come back.”

She paused in her walking. Still staring at the city, her voice low, “You what?”

“I can’t go back there, Beau. There, I’m… I’m…” he couldn’t say the word out loud. If he said it, it made it true. And, despite him knowing for nearly nine months that he was didn’t ease the reality of the situation when he’d seen Jester holding the baby.

“You’re a father. You have a goddamn baby with your goddamn wife, who I will _not let you abandon_!” Beau was in his face again, gripping onto the collar of his coat, her eyes murderous, “You won’t run from this, Caleb. You. Won’t.”

He pushed away from her, turning back to the sea, feeling the tears threaten again, “You don’t understand. I don’t want to run. It’s just…I wasn’t _meant_ for this. I can’t…I can’t be a…” he bit back the bile that threatened, “…a _father_. I don’t deserve that after all that I’ve done.”

“Not this bullshit again,” Beau was back at his side, roughly turning him to face her. 

“I thought so too, but seeing Jester with the baby…and her calling it after…_my mother_,” Caleb couldn’t lift his eyes to meet hers. “I don’t deserve to be a father to that child.”

Grabbing either shoulder, she looked into his eyes intently, “You aren’t your mistakes. Yes, you joined Trent Ikithon and his pricks. But you had no idea what he’d make you do. It’s not your fault that people died. So,” she gave him a bit of a shove, “get the fuck over it and let’s head back to my brand-new goddaughter.”

Caleb felt tears prickle, but gave Beau a small smile instead as she grabbed him by his coat sleeve and pulled him back to the Chateau. For all the hard-ass act that she put up, there was a certain softness about Beauregard Lionett that only a privileged few got to see. Caleb felt lucky to be a part of them. And he was certain that his daughter would also be.

“You know, this is nice of you to come and fetch me,” Caleb said, once Beau had decided he was less of a flight risk and had let go of his coat, “Is this what we can expect whenever you babysit our daughter?”

Beau shrugged, before shooting Caleb a smirk, “I am definitely hyping her up on sugar and teaching her how to kick ass one day.”

“Trust me, my daughter is already full of sugar. Jester is her mother, you know,” he sighed, placing a hand on Beau’s shoulder as they arrived to the backdoor of the Lavish Chateau. Caleb stopped and stared at the door, hand hovering above the handle.

“Once you open that door, there’s no going back,” Beau said, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Mostly because none of us will let you, but because once she’s in your arms you won’t want to let go.”

“It’s a scary thought,” he whispered.

The hand gave a light squeeze, “We’ll all be there for you. You’re not alone.”

Caleb placed his hand on hers and gave it a squeeze, “Thank you.”

“No need. We’re family.” Family. Something that Caleb never thought he deserved again, but had somehow been all around him for so many years. 

_And you just added a new member,_ he thought, the small smile on his face again as he opened the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two days in a row!!! WTF is going all???


	15. That's What I'm Talking About (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mighty Nein (minus Nott) have decided to go to Rexxentrum for spring break and Fjord is really happy he decided to join them.
> 
> Modern College AU (takes place between Chapter 2 and Chapter 9): Jester is visiting U of X regularly but does not attend yet.

When Fjord had heard from their friends that they wanted to spend spring break in the middle of the continent, he almost felt like going home to Port Damali. Not like he actually had a “home” there: he was an orphan that aged out of the system, there was no home for him anywhere anymore. But given the option of bumming around his beach-“home”-town or driving for eight _hours_ to the middle of po-dunk, mining town, nowhere, Fjord was very tempted to just hop on the train back to the coast.

It was only when Jester, Beau’s admittedly pretty friend from Nicodranas who came by more weekends than not, swore that Rexxentrum was really fun and had the best parties (and that she was going to join the caravan too and that he could sit next to her the whole time).

The drive ended up be closer to ten hours and despite Jester’s initial promise of sitting next to each other for the drive, Beau had dragged her to any car she was in, which often wasn’t the same car as Fjord. With seven people spread between the two small cars—Nott, while a dear friend, was also a devoted wife and mother so she didn’t want to be away from home for a week with a bunch of college kids—Fjord ended up being drooled on by Caduceus for most of the drive, while listening to Molly shamelessly flirt with Caleb in the front seat.

However, after seeing Jester in her outfit for their first rave in Rexxentrum, Fjord knew the drive was worth it. 

“Oh my god, Fjord! We need to get these light-up flowers!” Jester squealed, grabbing an orange lei and placing it around her fishnets crop top that clearly showed off her black bikini top underneath. Following her around the foreign space, he sucked on the pacifier that Beau had gotten him, watching as Jester handed over her credit card to the vendor. It took most of Fjord’s self control to try not watch as she bent over to examine the other wares that were being sold.

“Enjoying the view?” Molly—a purple haired, slim theatre major who was both loved and hated by Beauregard and probably dating Caleb—whispered, grinning as Fjord’s cheeks grew red at having been caught. Molly threw Fjord a wink before adding loudly, “Hey Jess! You should watch who you bend over in front of! You nearly gave Fjord a nose bleed from those see-through shorts of yours.”

Jester, still bent at the waist, looked back at the pair, “Well, that was the point, Molly.” She threw them a wink as she sauntered away to join where Beau and Yasha were dancing to the music.

“Now, _that’s _what I’m talking about!” Molly cackled as Fjord felt like he was melting, from embarrassment or joy he couldn’t tell. 

Leaning against the concrete wall behind him, he watched as Jester swayed and twisted to the music, the orange flowers paired with her all-black, see-through ensemble and neon blue hair made Fjord’s heart beat erratically. She was hot. Almost unbearably hot, in that outfit. Watching her spin and drag some of their other friend’s to join her fun, Fjord could no longer deny how attracted to her he actually was. He wanted to kiss her. Hard and long. Until the both of them were panting and she—

As Beau drifted across his vision, she caught his eyes and raised a brow at his flushed face.

_And there is the reason I haven’t made a move_, he sighed, combing a hand through his salt and peppered hair, distinctly remembering the lecture Beau had given him when he’d first asked Beau about her cute Nicodranas friend:

> “Fjord, Jester is practically my sister. Hell, I have an actual brother and I don’t give as many shits about him as I do about her,” Beau glared down at him from where she was spotting him as he did benchpresses, “So, if you are interested in her, know that you better be _actually interested_ in her. She’s not a quick hook-up like you and Avantika—and don’t give me any crap that Avi _wasn’t_ meant to be a hook-up—Jester doesn’t do hook-ups. So if you like-like her, like-_like her_: if you only think she’s cute, take a fucking hike.”

“Hey Fjord! I got you flowers too,” Jester said, as she sauntered over, causing the flowy shorts flit around her with every step, her arms holding out a green lay to place over his head. He ducked his head allowing her a better position to place it around him

“Thank you—JESS!“ he began, releasing the pacifier from his mouth, as Jester grabbed the lei and dragged him to the dance floor.

Giggling, Jester still clung to the flowers around his neck as she swayed and danced with the music, practically forcing Fjord to keep up with her movements. As she continued to keep him close, Fjord couldn’t resist placing his hands on her hips, swaying along with her movements. When he next glanced at her face, he couldn’t tell if the blush was due to his hands or the heat of the venue. As another song was transitioned into, Jester turned in his arms to the stage and shrieked, “This is _totally_ my song! Come on, Fjord, let’s get closer!”

Letting her grab his hand as she dragged him closer to the stage, Fjord decided something. Maybe he’d never get past dancing with Jester: hell, maybe he’d never get another chance to dance with her like this again. But, even if he didn’t, he knew one thing: he was falling head over heels for Jester Lavorre.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was ABSOLUTELY inspired by OrcBarbies Rexxentrum Rave Comic on Twitter! Here's the link to check it out:  
https://twitter.com/orcbarbies/status/1010579734541946880


	16. Listen. No, Really Listen (Nott)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mighty Nein is trying to plan for their latest mission. Per usual, the plan sucks.   
Normally, Nott would let it go. But today is not that kind of day...

Nott was thoroughly fed up.

Sitting there as the Mighty Nein sat in their “war room”, Nott felt like cocking her magical crossbow and shooting each and every member in some nonlethal part of their body. Like every planning session for any mission they had ever taken, it went off the rails quickly. What had started out as a quick “breaking and entering” gig (for Dr. Wacco or Wazzo or whatever, Nott really didn’t care), under the paranoid brains that were the Nein, had morphed into a conversation largely focus on preparing for all the things that could go wrong. To say that she needed a drink would be a gross understatement.

She knew that the end of her rope had arrived when Fjord—the bastard man, who definitely didn’t deserve Jester’s affections, but whom Nott would still hook her up with out of duty—mentioned for the third time how he should try to distract the guards at the gates with Caleb as bait.

“No, not happening,” Nott had said, getting up and standing on her seat at the table.

The whole table looked at her in shock. Had she not said anything all planning session? 

“Excuse me?” Fjord said, raising a brow at her.

“I said, no, that’s stupid and shut the fuck up,” Nott said, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction at the annoyance that was now plain in his stupid green face.

Beau elbowed him in ribs, chuckling deeply, “Damn, she _roasted_ you.”

“You, shut up, too,” Nott glared at her, getting a middle finger from the monk. Glancing around the table, Nott continued, “And the same goes for all you. This plan absolutely sucks—“

“We know, but, if you would listen—“ Caleb began as Nott shot him a withering glance.

“Listen. No, _really_ listen,” Nott said as Fjord, Caleb and Beau opened their mouths to speak again, “You guys are making this _way_ more complicated than it has to be. We shouldn’t even _need_ to distract the guards if we do this right. And by right, I mean sending in a few of us and leaving the rest outside.”

Many mouths opened once again, causing Nott to sigh as she cocked her crossbow. All the jaws clamped shut in protest.

“I am sneaky. Practically invisible, if I want to be,” Nott turned to Jester, “And Jessie can pop us in and out, no problem. As for Caleb, he can dispel any magical trap that I can’t undo. And that’s all the three we need.”

“I don’t know how okay I am with the Jester going with just you and Ca—“ Fjord began, before he was staring down the barrel of Nott’s crossbow.

“1. Jester can freaking benchpress you, and 2,” she glared down at the bastard, “I dare you to say that we can’t protect her. I _dare_ you.”

She saw his lip twitch briefly, exposing more of the tusks that were almost fully grown now. But he leaned back in his chair. 

Nott hopped off the table back onto her seat, facing the group “Now, as I was saying before I was _rudely_ interrupted: just the three of us go in. The fighters and Mr. Clay will stay outside on guard for anything bad. Sound good? Great, I’m heading to the hot tub and grabbing my flask from my room.”

As Nott was halfway to the door, Jester cleared her throat, “Nott?”

“Yeah, Jessie?” she replied, half-turning to the tiefling.

“Since when did you get so good at planning and stuff?”

Nott smiled, “I’ve always been good at. I just let you guys talk it out, usually.”

And, with that, the goblin walked briskly out of the room, leaving the rest of the Nein to pick-up their jaws off the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nott needs more appreciation for being one of the smartest people on the team. She lets everyone else take the lead on things, but she's like really freaking smart you guys.  
#LetNottBeInCharge2k19


	17. There is Something About Him (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beau is sick of listening about her roommates talk about each other. So, drastic measures are taken.
> 
> Set in the Modern College AU! I've had going for Chapters 2, 6, 9 and 15  
Takes place between Ch 15 and 6

“Fjord, we need to talk,” Beau demanded more than stated, storming into his room, kicking the door closed and taking a seat on his bed as he wheeled around to face her from his desk chair.

“What is it?” he asked, before gesturing back to his computer, “I have an essay due tonight and I really wanted to get it done soon so that we could all go to that new bakery-bubble tea place that opened up around the corner and—“

“What are you going to do about Jester?” she asked, making all of Fjord’s motor functions pause for a moment. 

Taking off his reading glasses, he turned and placed them on his desk trying to sort out what he should say. Jester and him in relation to one another had quickly become a forbidden topic between him and Beau once he had been forced to move-in with them after his apartment hunting took a deep dive. Jester being Jester, offered him the smaller of the two rooms, while she and Beau had a “permanent sleepover” in their shared master suite. Since they all had to share domestic duties, Beau and him had ceased all discussion of potential relationship brewing between Fjord and Jester.

“What do you mean?” Fjord played dumb, giving a shrug. 

When he glanced up at Beau he winced as she began to glare, “You _know_ what the fuck I am talking about. Your ‘maybe’ feelings for Jester and that fact that she sleeps right across the hall!” 

“Keep it down!” he shushed, glancing at the door. The last thing he needed was a certain neon-blue-haired girl running in asking about all of this.

“She’s not here right now, dumbass, hence why this is happening right now,” Beau said, before dropping back onto his bed, groaning loudly, “Jester went out with Molly and Yasha. I gave up hanging out with a hot girl to talk with you about dating our roommate.” She rolled onto her side to glare at him, “You are _so_ lucky I like the two of you.”

“The two of us? I thought this was about me,” Fjord said with an eyeroll, crossing his arms.

Beau rubbed a hand across her face, “I swear to god, if I have to listen to her go on and on about you for another goddamn day, I’m gonna hurl.”

“Wait, what?” his cheeks went pink. _Beau isn’t…she can’t be…Beau can’t _ possibly _be saying—_

“Jester won’t shut up about you, _at all_, and it’s been like that for almost the entire year you’ve been living with us. Not to mention all the hours she'd talk about you last year when she didn't see you all the time! God, I swear, I’m going insane!” Beau continued, gesturing wildly at the ceiling before looking over at him again, “You gotta ask her out. It’s the only solution.”

Fjord must’ve been hearing things. Jester couldn’t _possibly_ have been talking about him: there must’ve been another guy called “Fjord” at the university and that’s who she was into. Nope, not possible.

Beau glared at him, “Are you fucking listening to me or not, dumbass?”

Fjord uncrossed and then recrossed his arms, before pinching his brows together, “I hear the words that you’re saying…but, that’s not possible. Jester doesn’t feel that way about me—“

_“Oh Beau! I don’t know why, but I just like him so much! Like _so_ much, Beau!” _came a tinny, obviously recorded version of the voice that haunted his dreams. Fjord’s head snapped up to see Beau holding up her phone, her voicemail open.

“Is that—?” he didn’t get a chance to finish as the recording continued with a sigh.

“_I know, I know: he’s our roommate and if dating doesn’t work out it’ll make the apartment vibe _so_ awkward for everyone, especially you. But, there’s just something about him, Beau…He’s like the sweetest person I’ve ever known! He brought me my favorite creme frappuccino from the cafe across campus while I was in the art room today. How can I _not_ fall for a guy like that?!”_

Fjord felt his heart begin to beat erratically, even as a small voice persisted, _She still might not be talking about_—

_“How can I _ not _ fall in love with Fjord?” _Jester’s voice was a dreamy sigh, as the recording cut out.

“Well?” Beau’s voice interrupted the silence that had settled on the room. He glanced up at her smirking face, “Still don’t think she likes you?”

Fjord opened his mouth and closed it several times, before letting out a low whine and dropping his face into his hands.

“Shit! Fuck! Don’t cry! Shit!” he heard Beau scramble off his bed and towards him, panic clear in her voice.

But Fjord couldn’t give a damn: Jester Lavorre, the love of his life, was falling in love with him. How could he _not_ freak out about that?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back?! Sort of...not really...maybe?... probably...who knows!  
Anyways, sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. I went down the rabbit hole that is long-ass fanfics. Like seriously long fanfics (I'm talking those 150k+ ones). So that left little time to write.  
But I'm kinda-sorta-maybe back in the groove! Expect a few more chapters today (maybe)


	18. Secrets? I Love Secrets! (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fjord learns more about the life of Demonhunters and a bit of the dynamics of the group he's joined forces with.
> 
> Set in Demonhunter!AU from Chapter 10

“Explain to me again why we’re walking around in an actual sewer?” Fjord asked, as he carefully walked over another patch of mystery slime. He did _not_ want a repeat of when the group had first entered the sewers and he’d immediately slipped and fallen on his ass, earning a cackle from the short woman and a click of disapproval from _Caleb_.

“If you’re going to be a Hunter, you have to be armed properly,” Jester answered, turning slightly to shoot him a wink and grin, “Don’t want to be in charge of saving you _all_ the time, you know?”

Fjord was glad for the darkness of the sewers for a moment, as he was certain he was blushing. Clearing his throat, he continued his line of questioning, “And demon hunters have their cash of weapons down here?”

“Technically, yes…and no,” she answered, now turning fully back to him and continuing to walk backwards down the tunnel. “More like we need to visit someone to get the weapons.”

“Someone? Who?” Fjord knit his brows together.

“Molly,” Jester answered with a smile, “He’s like _super_ fun: you’re going to love him!”

“And he lives down here? _Why?!_” Fjord asked before wincing as he felt his boot squish into something gooey.

“Yeah, it _is_ kind of gross down here,” Jester said with a giggle, stopping to wait for him to scrape off some of the goo on the concrete ledge.

A scoff behind him was the only indication Fjord was given before Caleb bumped into Fjord’s shoulder as he continued walking, knocking Fjord off balance in the process. Fjord windmilled his arms as the dark liquid of the sewer came up to meet him. However, before he could learn just what sewer water tasted like, a strong hand held the fabric of his shirt, pulling him back from the water’s ledge with a simple yank. Pressing his body against the wall of the sewer, Fjord watched as Jester glared at the back of Caleb’s head.

“Ca-leb! That wasn’t very nice,” she growled, causing the stoic man to turn around, “Fjord could’ve fallen in.”

“He should be more careful then,” the short woman who was taking up the rear stated, giving Fjord a glare as she passed to join Caleb at the front of the group.

“Nott, that’s not fair. He’s never been to see Molly before: he doesn’t know how dangerous it is,” Jester responded, the irritation in her voice evident.

“He shouldn’t even _be_ visiting Molly, Jester,” Caleb finally answered, pausing to give Jester a meaningful look, “You know that that’s not how this normally works.”

Jester shifted foot to foot, suddenly uncomfortable, “But he could see them before he knew. Normal rules don’t apply.” She glanced back up at Caleb with a soft smile that bothered Fjord more than it should’ve, “Besides, wasn’t it just the _most_ fun to choose your weapon for the first time?”

A small smile formed on the man’s face as his voice softened, “Yes, it was, Blueberry.”

“Sooooo, why bother sticking to ceremony when Fjord can just go ahead and pick what weapon we’ll train him with?” she asked, taking a casual step towards Caleb, who’s will was obviously beginning to bend. “Come on, Caleb…if he chooses his weapon today, we’ll get him all trained up even faster, which means he won’t be a liability anymore.”

Caleb seemed to consider this for a moment, not responding as Jester continued, taking another step towards him.

“Annnnnnd, if he’s not a liability, we can be an even better team,” she continued as she now was only a step away from Caleb. Caleb only hummed in response, as he tilted his head toward her form.

Watching them together, Fjord noticed something…different about Jester. Rubbing a hand over an eye, he blinked several times, making sure what he was seeing was actually happening. Was…was Jester’s eyes…_glowing_?!

“We’re a great team without him,” Nott said abruptly, bringing everyone’s eyes to her. She narrowed her eyes at Fjord, “We don’t need him.”

Jester crossed her arms, her purple irises no longer illuminated, “Yeah, we don’t need him: but I _want_ him.“ 

Fjord felt his heartbeat falter for a moment. With Jester’s eyes no longer on him, Caleb shook his head for a moment before turning back to the direction they were heading.

“As part of the team? Really?” Nott’s glare intensified as she looked between Fjord and Jester. “He doesn’t know anything, Jessie. He’s gonna be a liability whether or not he has a weapon.”

Jester sighed, giving Nott the most irritated expression he’d ever seen cross her face,“Fine: if you let him be part of the team, I’ll tell you one of my Secrets.”

“Secrets? I _love _Secrets!” the woman’s tone was suddenly bright, as her expression shifted to excitement.

“_Only_ if you help me train Fjord and let him onto the team,” Jester continued, finger out as though she were giving Nott a lecture, “Also, I still won’t tell you my Secret of Forgetfullness.”

“Oh, come on, Jessie! That’s the _best_ of your Secrets!” Nott whined, “Imagine all the robbing I could get away with that one!”

“That’s why I won’t tell you that one: everyone knows you need to practice being sneaky,” Jester said, with a giggle, earning a huff from Nott.

“Fine, I’ll settle for one of your dumb other Secrets,” Nott muttered, before shooting another glare at Fjord, “You can be on the team, I guess.”

“Thanks?” Fjord said from his space still pressed against the sewer wall.

Nott nodded and followed after Caleb.

Jester sighed, before turning back to Fjord with a smile, hand outstretched. He took it without a second thought, letting her lead him away from the wall and down the hall. Fjord, once again thanked whatever deities were out there for the darkness, as Jester continued to hold his hand as they walked down the tunnels.

As they were still several paces behind the other two, Fjord found his voice, “Jester?”

“Hmm?”

“What was that about ‘secrets’?” he asked, hearing her steps falter for a moment, before continuing on casually.

“Oh. That,” came her soft voice, her eyes still on the sewer in front of them, “It’s…um…a certain _skill_ that we learn as Hunters.”

“Like learning how to dissolve a demon?” Fjord offered, trying to keep his tone casual.

“Um, _kinda_, I guess,” Jester said, her voice still uncertain, “Except the problem or maybe good thing with Secrets is that they…erm…work on other Hunters, too.”

Fjord’s brows knitted together, giving Jester’s hand a bit of a squeeze, “What do you mean?”

“Well…you know how Nott mentioned ‘forgetfulness’?” her voice was only barely audible with their steps echoing around the chamber.

“Yeah…”

“Well, um, with that…_Secret_…you can, well, make people forget…things.”

Fjord’s feet stopped on their own accord, yanking Jester to a stop as well, “Wait, what?”

“If I use that Secret on someone—demon or Hunter—they forget what I want them to,” she continued, eyes on the floor in front of them, “It’s useful if I need to make a quick getaway.”

“Okay…okay…okay,” Fjord said, beginning to walk again, feeling the gears in his skull winding up, “So, you can make anyone forget anything?”

“Well, not _anyone_: just demons or Hunters. Not normal people,” Jester waved her free hand around animatedly, “And I don’t know about _anything_. To be honest, I don’t use that Secret all that much.”

“So… you have a lot of Secrets?” Fjord asked, knowing as soon as it left his mouth that he set himself up for embarrassment.

“Why, of course, I do, Fjord,” her grin was mischievous as she turned to him, releasing his hand, “Loads that are with a capital ’S’ and even _more_ with a lower case one.” He felt his mouth go dry as she dragged a finger across his chest, “But, you have to _earn_ those, Fjord.”

“How-how do I do that?” he could hear his heartbeat in his ears.

Leaning closer to him for a moment, she hovered only a few precious inches away from his lips. If he wasn’t red before, Fjord knew he was red then.

“Don’t worry, I think you’ll figure some way to get them out of me,” she said, before pulling away with a giggle, and beginning to dash away from him.

Even though he’d like to further think about all she’d told him, the fear of being left alone for too long overwhelmed him and he was soon running after her as well, letting the sound of her giggles lead him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I actually AM posting another chapter today! Check me out, yall!


	19. Yes, I Admit it. You Were Right (Beau & Jester & Nott)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Mighty Nein girls (minus Yasha) go on a short road trip to check out the candy factory that Jester swears is out here. Beau doesn't believe her but at least that means she doesn't have to do her assigned reading today.
> 
> A short Modern College AU drabble

“This isn’t happening right now,” Beau said, still unable to process the sight in front of her.

“Yes, it so totally is,” Jester squealed, giving Beau a bone-crushing side hug before running towards the biggest jawbreaker that Beau had ever seen in her life. “Look at this thing! It’s massive!”

“Not as big as this!” Nott said, from off to the side, pointing at a display box that towered over her that was full of pink sugar floss, “This thing is easily ten feet tall!”

Jester scoffed, waving a dismissive hand towards Nott, “Cotton candy is super easy to make big. But a jawbreaker! Now _that’s_ impressive!” 

“Nope, this is some sort of fever dream. We must be dying of dehydration in the desert somewhere,” Beau muttered, passing by a massive candy cane and another case that had gumdrops that were wider than her. “There is no way in the middle of the most rural part of Wildemount is a candy factory with giant candies.”

“They don’t _only_ make giant candies here,” Jester corrected, pulling her face away from the glass of the jawbreaker, “They only make the huge ones for display in their museum. Everything else is normal sized. We should ask to get a tour of the factory!”

“But why is there a candy factory even out here?!” Beau asked, waving around herself, “There is nothing but trees out there for the next 30 miles!”

Nott rolled her eyes, “Sounds like you just don’t want to say what you gotta say to Jester, if you ask me.”

Beau glared at the much shorter woman, “This is still impossible. And dumb. And stupid.”

“Beau, there’s no shame in admitting you were wrong,” Jester said, her expression as innocent as possible. “How were you supposed to know that three hours away from campus was the biggest candy factory in all of Wildemount?”

“Yeah, Beau, how were you to know?” Nott responded, a smirk stretched across her face.

“Urghhhh, fine!” Beau shouted, before saying to Jester a bit more calmly, “Yes, I admit it. You were right. I was wrong,” she turned to Nott, with a glare, “There. Happy?”

“Very, thank you,” Nott said, before walking further into the museum. 

“But, seriously, how did you know about this place?” Beau asked, leaning towards Jester, who went back to admiring the jawbreaker and its several hundred layers.

“Mama used to tell me about it all the time. I thought it was fake for a long time, but then someone brought some of the candy to the Lavish Chateau and I got to try some. It was like _the best_ candy I’ve ever had,” Jester said, her mouth watering at the sight of the jawbreaker.

“Jessie! They have the biggest lollipop I’ve ever seen in here!!!” came Nott’s voice from the next room, causing Jester to squeal.

“Come on! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s _go!_” Jester said, wrapping Beau’s hand with her own.

Beau shook her head. Leave it to Jester to find the one candy museum and factory in the continent. Beau really should’ve known better.


	20. You Could Talk About It, You Know? (Caleb & Nott)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caleb is mopey-er than usual and Nott is tired of it.  
Modern College AU strikes again!

“You could talk about it, you know?”

The sudden question caused Caleb to look up from the book he was reading, locking eyes with the short, stringy haired woman across the table from him. He furrowed his brow, while he glanced back down to his book, “About what, Nott?”

“About missing Molly,” she responded, taking a large bite out of the sandwich her husband had packed for her. “He has been gone for almost a semester now.”

“He’s on the road with his father’s circus. Of course, he’s going to be gone for awhile,” Caleb answered, grabbing the other half of Nott’s sandwich and shoving it in his mouth, all without glancing away from the page he was rereading.

Nott shrugged, before continuing, “Doesn’t mean you don’t miss him. It’s been weeks since you two saw each other. If I don’t see Yeza for more than a long weekend, I start getting antsy and—“

“We aren’t like you and your husband, okay?” Caleb snapped, immediately feeling guilty as he closed his book. He took a deep breath and looked over to see Nott’s eyes widened in suprise, “Molly and I weren’t together when he left. So it would be…remiss… to miss him.”

“Oh,” she replied, looking back down at her lunch before looking back up at Caleb, eyes narrowed, “It sure looked like you two were together.”

Caleb felt a soft blush beginning to build on his face as he reopened his Tolstoy, “Ah, well, looks can be deceiving.”

“He always hung around your dorm,” Nott pointed out.

“He lived three doors down with Fjord.”

“I found him undressed there on multiple occasions.”

“Molly is always in some state of undress.”

“You two totally hooked up while in Rexxentrum.”

“That was,” Caleb hid his face further in his book, “A, uh, fluke. It was spring break and alcohol was involved. That does not count.”

“Fair point,” she replied, shrugging yet again, “Doesn’t mean you can’t miss him, though.”

“Nott, please,” he snapped the book shut loudly, turning his full attention to his lunch companion, “Can we please no longer discuss this?”

Nott glared at him, “Caleb, you might not _want_ to discuss this but you miss him. You have been reading the same depressing books for a month now. You _barely_ hang out with anyone but me. You can’t even stand being in the same room as Yasha! You miss Molly.”

“And so what if I do?” he sighed, re-reading the same passage again, trying to gain some sort of knowledge from the text, “It is not possible for me to contact him since he made it clear when he left that we weren’t an item—“

“Did Molly tell you that?”

Caleb paused, glancing up at the very annoyed face of Nott. He opened his mouth and closed it several times, attempting to grasp the meaning of her question.

“Did Molly _explicitly_ tell you that you two were not together?” she repeated, placing her sandwich back down on the table. Walking around the table to face Caleb, her gaze unrelenting, “Or…are you _assuming _that he isn’t interested in you simply because you think you’re ‘unlovable’ per your own self-confidence issues?”

“Well… uh…” the necessary words, escaping him for the time being.

Nott poked a finger into Caleb’s chest, “Which is an incorrect assumption, because _all of us_ love you and care about, whether you like it or not. So, are you being a stupid idiot and shoving away the best thing that ever happened to you just because you think no one loves you? Because if you are, I _will_ use Luc’s crossbow on you.”

Caleb leaned as far away from the finger in his face would allow him to. All he could do is gulp.

“And with that,” she continued, pulling away from Caleb to glance at her watch, “It looks like my hubby is finished with his lab, so I’m gonna drop off his lunch.” Caleb nodded, as he watched Nott pack up her remaining items, and begin to exit the lunchroom of the bookstore.

Pausing at the door, Nott turned back to him,“And Caleb?” 

“Y-yes?” Caleb answered, his throat strangely dry.

Nott smiled, “Please give Molly a call. You both need it.” 

Without waiting for his response, she left, hoping for once, Caleb would let himself be happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm catching up you guys! I'm gonna do it! I swear!


	21. Change is Annoyingly Difficult (Fjord & Caduceus)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fjord needs some guidance and who better to ask then the Mighty Nein's resident therapist-friend?

The knocking at his door at this early of an hour probably would’ve been annoying to anyone else in the Xhorhouse; however, Caduceus was not easy person to anger. He’d never been. Even after that one time his brother tricked him into eating a literal mud pie. Or when his other brother had tricked him into doing it again. No, Caduceus Clay was much to level-headed for such nonsense as complete irritation. Besides, they lived in a city of perpetual night: “before sunrise” is almost a fake concept in a place such as this.

Thus, Caduceus found himself opening the door to find one of his brethren of sorts, fidgeting with the red half cloak at his side, back to the door.

“Why hello, Fjord,” Caduceus said, leaning against his staff with a smile as the half-orc rapidly turned around to face him. “What brings you here this early in the morning?”

“Ah, well, I was hoping that we could, well, meditate together this morning,” came Fjord’s jarring speech, as he gave Caduceus a nervous smile.

Feeling the tension rolling off his companion, Cad simply smiled, giving Fjord a pat on the shoulder, before beginning to take a trek up to the roof. As Fjord’s steps followed timid behind him, Caduceus caught the slight mutterings under Fjord’s breath: “confusing”, “frustrating”, “uncertain”. Even as Caduceus took a seat on his meditation mat, he knew it was likely that little meditation would actually occur between them. 

However, as he’d found with almost all of the Nein, you generally are more likely to find out what seems to be the troubling someone when you play along with their distractions than if you interrogate them. Giving a brief shake of his head as Caduceus closed his eyes, he considered how much he wished they’d consider taking up his “radical honesty” approach of living. Telling the truth is sometimes much more effective than lying, especially when it comes to powerful authority figures.

It only took a few minutes of silence for Fjord to clear his throat. 

Caduceus gave a soft smile as he answered, “Yes, Fjord?”

“Cad, would it be possible to meditate a bit later?” Fjord finally asked, defeat evident in his tone, “There is something I wish to discuss with you. I’m sorry for bringing you out here under false pretenses.”

“Of course, it’s no trouble. Now, what’s on your mind?” Caduceus responded, opening his eyes to further observe his friend, he had begun fiddling with his cloak again.

“It’s…well…” Fjord sighs in defeat, his whole body drooping, eyes not leaving the red hem in his hands, “Caduceus, do you ever question whether you are good enough to receive the Wildmother’s blessing?”

Caduceus blinked several times, letting the question sink in. He opened his mouth, before closing it again, his brows knitting together in concentration. To not _deserve_ the Wildmother’s blessing? That… that’s just…

He heard Fjord sigh again before watching as Fjord dropped back onto the roof, “It was a stupid question. Of course, you never think that: you were _raised_ to pray to her. You have always been good enough. I apologize for bothering to ask.”

“No, it wasn’t a stupid question,” Caduceus responded, before standing to look down at the half-orc, who still looked so…defeated. He observed Fjord’s downtrodden expression for a moment more before asking, “Fjord, do _you _think you don’t deserve her blessing?”

Fjord sighed before meeting Cad’s eyes, “Is it that obvious?”

Caduceus flopped down onto a nearby stool, brows knit together once again, as Fjord sat up again. “But how could you even think that you aren’t worthy?” Caduceus’ voice was still astounded.

“Besides, oh you know, making a deal with a demigod that was evil enough to assist the betrayer gods? I’ll have to think about it,” Fjord gave a mirthless chuckle before reaching out to his side. On cue, the Star Razor came into existence in his grasp, a frozen breeze blowing through the space. 

Placing it on his crossed legs, Fjord stared at the blue veins that crawled across its surface, as he continued, “With her blessing, I received this sword, a legendary weapon. A sword wielded by men much more impressive than I, crafted by a sword smith more legendary than the weapon itself…” he glanced up at Caduceus, “Yet, I, an orphan from the coast who _lied_ to his only friends in the world about his own _voice_, wield it.”

“And why shouldn’t you?” 

“Well, I’m just…me. Just me,” Fjord said, making the sword disappear, before looking back to Cad, “I’m not impressive.”

“Neither were the men who wielded it before you,” Caduceus shrugged.

“I’m not a good person.”

“Who says so?”

“I’m a liar, a thief, a pirate, a jerk,” Fjord shot back, before crumpling under Caduceus’ gaze once more, “Even when I try to be better, I’m terrible.”

“Well, change is annoyingly difficult,” Cad responded, with another shrug, “But, you are still trying. And, that makes all the difference.”

“You really think so?” Fjord’s gaze seemed to hold just a bit more of a spark. 

“Entirely. Besides, if nature teaches us anything, change is inevitable,” Caduceus got up and took a seat across from Fjord once again, “With your effort and with some guidance from the Wildmother, you’ll be just fine.”

At this statement, Fjord visibly relaxed, a smile gracing his features once more, “Thank you, Caduceus. I think I needed to hear that.”

“You did,” he responded, that calm smile taking over once again. Cad closed his eyes before adding, “How about we do a bit of meditation? Maybe the Wildmother has something we need to know.”

“Maybe,” Fjord responded, before a comfortable silence fell across the pair, shortly followed by an unnaturally warm breeze, that smelled of the ocean passed through.


	22. We Could Have a Chance (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the day of Jester's freshman art exhibit and Fjord has come by to surprise her. To say she is thrilled at his presence and what happens after is an understatement.
> 
> Modern College AU!

To be honest, Jester hadn’t actually expected Fjord to come. 

The First Year Art Major Exhibition, while important to her and led to her invite all of their friends to come, was honestly something that Fjord, a Marine Biology-Environmental Science double major, would hardly be interested in. Even if they lived together and he saw how hard she was working on her portrait, every day and every night. Even if Beau told Jester that she’d personally threatened every one of their friends with death if they didn’t attend. Even if she hoped and prayed that Fjord would come and support her.

But, seeing him walk in, dressed in a grey suit and holding a bouquet of flowers had still shocked Jester to her core. So much so, that she simply stopped talking all together as her jaw dropped open, much to the confusion of Calianna and Beau whom she was in the middle of an intense debate with regarding the merits of sweets in a well-rounded meal. As Jester still was struggling to lift her jaw from the floor, Fjord caught sight of her and with a smile so smooth it should’ve been illegal, he came walking over.

“Fjord! You made it,” Beau said from somewhere behind Jester.

“Yup, wouldn’t miss it for the world,” was his answer, his golden eyes not leaving Jester’s as he gave her the sweetest smile she’s ever seen. His sun-tanned cheeks pinked slightly as he extended a brightly colored, mixed flower bouquet to Jester as he cleared his throat, “For the, uh, artist.”

“Thank you, Fjord. I love them,” she said, her face breaking into a massive grin that threatened to break her face, as she closed her eyes to take a whiff of the bouquet. Of course, it smelt only vaguely flower-like as it came from the discount grocery store across the street from campus, but it still made Jester’s heartbeat increase ten-fold. 

_Fjord_ got _her _flowers! 

_That _said romance, right? _Right?!_

“Well, I love you—“ Fjord started, his voice dreamy, causing Jester’s eyes to shoot open and stare at him. The blush on his cheeks deepened to an almost red hue, as he blurted out much more loudly, “I mean, your art! I love _your art_! It’s really great! And good! And I love _it_.”

Beau dropped her head onto Jester’s shoulder, an angle at which Jester could just barely make out her friend’s shit-eating grin, “So you ‘love’ her _art_, huh?”

“Yes, absolutely. I absolutely love her _art, _Beau,” Fjord responded, his grin just a bit forced as he openly glared at their mutual roommate.

“Really? Because it sounded like—“ Beau began, her tone taunting as Fjord placed a hand on Beau’s face, pushing it off Jester’s shoulder as he gave the blue-haired girl a smile.

“Would you show me around the exhibition? I’d like to see which of these are yours,” he asked suddenly, offering Jester his arm, making her stomach flip and her cheeks pink.

Not trusting her voice, Jester simply nodded, placing her hand in the crook of his elbow, as they began to walk away from a loudly cursing Beau. 

“So how many pieces were you working on for this? I know about the six-foot-tall one, but I think you mentioned you did…four?” Fjord asked after they’d passed through the Ceramics section of the hall.

Jester giggled, giving his arm a light squeeze as she waved at a couple of her classmates as they spoke about their creations to some of the professors doing the evaluations, “Technically, three pieces. My super, mega, huge one counted for two of the required four.”

Fjord chuckled, before shooting her a wink, “Well, that’s one way to do less work.”

“That was _definitely _the plan. Next year, I’ll just do a whole wall-sized piece of art so I’ll end up needing to do just one painting!” she teased, gesturing at one of the gallery walls ahead of them.

“But, then you’d have to be in the art room for probably four days straight instead of the one-and-a-half that you were for this one,” he shot back, raising an eyebrow.

She bit her bottom lip as she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear to cover the blush that was steadily deepening across her cheeks,“So, you noticed that, huh?”

“That I hadn’t seen you for nearly three days? Of course. Who do you think sent Beau with that beef stew for you?” he said casually, admiring a piece across the hall, “Was this one of yours? I think I remember seeing your sketch of some sunflowers.”

Jester nodded, letting Fjord lead them across the hall. As he continued to complement her work, Jester bit her bottom lip to keep from squealing. He noticed she was gone! Yes, they lived together, but how many roommates actually noticed that they haven’t seen you in awhile? Also, she was walking arm-in-arm with him! This whole thing felt like something right out of one of her romance novels: all they needed was Victorian clothing and a winter’s ball. 

Jester sighed happily, as Fjord and her continued walking to the next section of artwork. Was it possible to faint from happiness? Because she was certain she was about to.

“Now, which of these massive paintings are yours?” he suddenly asked, bringing her out of her internal thoughts. 

Jester glanced around, her happiness beginning to sober a bit, because they were finally at this piece. _The _piece: the one she had worked on nonstop over the past week. The one that held more of her heart and soul than she’d like to admit outloud. Slipping her hand into Fjord’s, Jester pulled him across the hall to the overwhelmingly dark piece, the darkest in the hall. 

“This one. This is mine,” Jester said, staring at her artwork for several long moments, letting go of Fjord’s hand.

The piece was an image was of a red-haired woman, staring out at the viewer over the shoulder of her dance partner, who’s back had few definable features. Her expression was blissfully happy, despite the single tear that sparkled as it slid down her cheek. However, the woman was the only colored portion of the painting: the background behind her and the man who held her were painted in dark, swirling blues, almost black to an untrained eye.

“She’s beautiful,” was all Fjord said from beside her.

“She’s my mama,” Jester said around the lump that was forming in her throat. Jester knew that her mother hardly ever left her apartment above the Lavish Chateau—the burlesque club where Marion worked—but it still ached that her mother wouldn’t be attending her exhibition.

“And the man is…?”

“My father,” Jester answered with more confidence than she felt. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fjord nod, continuing to stare up at the painting in front of them. He didn’t need to ask now why the man was a shadowy figure, why there were no defining details to the man’s form other than the broad shoulder that blocked out most of Marion’s dress. 

Jester had no details about the man. 

There was nothing more that she could add because she knew nothing more than that somewhere in this swirling world around her, he existed. He was nothing more than a shadow that hung onto Marion’s happiness. That hung on _Jester’s_ happiness.

“He made her so happy. Even after he left, she still was happy to have loved him, you know,” Jester felt the tears begin to gather at the edges of her vision.

Fjord nodded again, his gaze now on her instead of the art.

“And I’m sure he loved her. Why else…why else would I be around?” she hated how her voice was becoming choked.

“Of course, he loved her. Lavorre women are easy to love,” came his voice from beside her, making Jester release a watery laugh, as she rubbed at her eyes.

Staring back into her mother’s painted hazel eyes, feeling her own single tear escape down a cheek. Her father left her mother even though he loved her, even though he made Marion happy. Even though Marion made him happy…

“He didn’t even give them a chance,” Jester whispered, feeling her eyes begin to water at the truth of the statement. She turned to Fjord, as more tears slipped down her face, “Why wouldn’t he give them a chance if he loved her, Fjord?”

“Oh, Jessie,” Fjord pulled her into a tight hug before she could even protest, crying into the front of his forest green shirt. Clutching tightly to the back of it, Jester didn’t bother trying to hide how much it hurt, it hurt to be left like this. To be left with a hole in your life just because of something as stupid as fear. 

“If he loved her, why couldn’t he give them a chance? I just don’t get it,” Jester mumbled into his chest once she was able to get control back on her emotions enough to stop crying, but didn’t want to let go of him just yet.

She was surprised by the hand that came and tilted her chin up to look at him. Fjord’s smile was warm enough to wash away some of the sadness that clung to her. His words wiped the rest of it away, “Because he’s a big, old dumb-head who couldn’t see a good thing if it slapped him across the face.”

“My mama didn’t slap him, but she reallllllly should have,” Jester said with a giggle, as his thumb brushed across her cheek to brush away some of the tracks of tears. Before he could have a chance to pull away, Jester pressed her hand against his on her cheek, keeping it there. Looking up into those golden eyes, she whispered, “Thank you, Fjord.”

_I love you_, she thought, snuggling into the hand that still held her face.

His eyes widened a fraction, making Jester wonder if she’d said the thought aloud. But before she could lighten the mood between them now, to pull away and show him her final piece, Fjord pulled her again, hugging her to him as he hid his face in her hair.

Confused but enjoying the contact between them, Jester barely registered the words he’d spoken.

“We could have a chance.”

She froze, her mind running a mile a minute. Not trusting herself, she whispered, “Fjord?”

Pulling back slightly, he leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes still shut as hers tried to cross to read his expression. Releasing a breath, he pulled back all the way, their hands the only thing left connecting them. Jester had just convinced herself she had heard incorrectly when he repeated himself, “We could have a chance. You and me. We could give this a chance.”

“Are you saying…” her voice sounded off, so devoid of emotion, to keep herself from hoping for just a moment. She wouldn’t be able to keep her heart from breaking if this turned out to not be real. She had to be safe about these things, you know.

But, Fjord nodded, bringing one of her hands to his lips as he continued to hold eye contact, “Jessie, would you like to go out with sometime?”

_Fuck being safe! _Jester thought, launching herself into his arms. 

Despite being several inches taller than her, she was significantly stronger than him and the two fell to the floor, earning several glares and amused glances alike. Once the two had recovered from their giggles somewhat, Jester stared into his face in wonder, as he held her to him.

“So, I take it, that you say ‘yes’ to the date?” Fjord asked, seeming to be unwilling to let Jester go even as more students and teachers stared at them on the floor.

“Of course, I do!” Jester announced with a giggle, before snuggling her face into his chest. _Fjord wanted to date her! Fjord_, the love of her life, wanted to date _her_! Could this day get any better.

“Yo, Jess. I know you guys are happy and all, but maybe y’all should get the fuck up off the floor,” came a sarcastic and familiar voice from above them, causing both her and Fjord to glance up into the face of their other roommate. Beau crossed her arms with a smirk as they extracted their forms from one another with a few more giggles, “Also, maybe keep the PDA to Fjord’s bedroom. No one wants to see your ‘performance art’ here.”

Jester giggled as Fjord’s face turned red, “It’s not like we fell to the floor on purpose! She tackle-hugged me!”

“Yeah, like you were complaining about the position,” Beau responded, walking away from the pair.

“It was an accident!” Fjord continued, following after her, thus, dragging Jester along behind his as he had yet to let go of her hand. And, if it meant being with him, Jester couldn’t find it within herself to care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To say I was "inspired" to write some sappy Fjorester after Episode 82 is an UNDERSTATEMENT!!  
Also, it is unlikely that I will write another chapter today to try and catch up. This was like 3k words and I need to prep for NaNoWriMo. Also, I'm writing a side fic for one of my friends.  
So I'll catch you when I catch you ;)


	23. You Can't Give More Than Yourself (Beau/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of the Nein almost didn't make it out the battle this time. And Jester is pissed about it. Beau just can't understand why Jester's rage seems to be specifically associated with her.

The room was silent, which in itself was an odd occurance. In a room that contained Jester Lavorre, it could be safely assumed that the room would be magnificently bursting with sound. Pair that with the fact that she shared said room with Beauregard Lionett, Jester’s confidant and the Mighty Nein’s resident “obnoxious asshole”, the room should’ve be bouncing with energy.

But today was different. Today, after the battle they’ve had, after almost losing more than one member of the party, the house was silent. The room was silent.

The pink light from Jester’s hands died down as Beau let out a slight groan of discomfort as another rib snapped back into place.

“I probably have enough healing left to help a bit more with the bruising, but nothing more than that,” Jester finally said, getting up from Beau’s bed to the water basin in the corner of the room. Washing some of the blood from her hands, Jester continued, “Tomorrow, I should be able to heal up the rest of the cuts. But I can bind some for now with my medicine kit.”

Beau made a noncommittal sound, watching as Jester looked back out the window as she dried off her hands. The moonlight made Jester’s skin glow like silk, so smooth that Beau just wanted to reach out and touch it. But, after Jester’s rage at her earlier today after Beau had been revivified, Beau knew she was lucky that Jester was even speaking to her at all. 

It was this thought, this consideration that made Beau’s eyes begin to water, for the tears to begin to gather and her jaw begin to quiver despite how hard Beau clenched her teeth to prevent it. Jester hated her. Jester would leave just because Beau was stupid enough to get hit. Another person would leave because of who Beau was. She was stupid, so, so stupid. Why did the Nein put up with her, when not even her parents wanted to deal with her?

“Beau, you can’t keep doing this,” Jester said to the open air, her back still to the barely functioning mess that was Beauregard. “You can’t keep throwing yourself into the heart of danger and expect to be saved.”

“I’m sorry,” Beau managed to croak out, wincing as she heard Jester turn around. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the disgust and pity that would be so apparent on her roommate’s face.

To say Beau was surprised to feel cool hands on her cheeks, wiping away the tears that had managed to escape was an understatement. 

“Oh, Beau,” came Jester’s voice, so heartbreakingly sad, as Jester’s hands continued to caress away her tears.

Despite wanting to see what Jester was thinking, Beau clenched her eyes tighter. She didn’t want to see anymore disappoint from people she loved. Taking a deep breath, Beau sat up straighter, before clearing her throat, “I’m sorry, Jester. I didn’t… I didn’t want to get you mad.”

The hands on her face froze, as a soft voice asked, “You think I’m mad at you?”

Beau nodded, before adding, “About dying stupidly.”

“You think I’m mad at you because you died stupidly?” 

Now that tone of voice definitely was more shock that anger, so Beau risked peaking an eye open. Jester’s violet eyes were wide but a bit of amusement and something else sparkled within them. Beau nodded timidly.

Jester laughed, making any of Beau’s muscles still tensed relax, before Jester pulled her into a hug. A long, soft, comforting hug, that Beau latched onto feeling the happiness and joy that just always seemed to leak into the space around the tiefling: she was called “Jester” for a reason.

After a long moment of holding and being held, Jester pulled away some, placing her forehead against Beau’s with a sigh, “That’s not why I’m mad.”

“Why were you, then? Telling me what you had left of your spells was the first thing you said to me in hours,” Beau responded brusquely, immediately regretting the words as she felt Jester tense slightly under her hands. 

As Beau was on the cusp of apologizing once again, another sigh came from Jester as she pulled back so that they only held each other’s hands, “I’m mad because I almost lost you. The spell almost didn’t work.”

Beau blinked for several moments. Fjord and Cad hadn’t mentioned that when they were making their way back to their horses: they’d simply said she’d died, and Jester brought her back. Nothing about having almost not come back.

“I was just so…so mad that I almost lost. That I couldn’t do more than say those words and make those offerrings to the Traveller,” Jester leaned her forehead on Beau’s shoulder before murmuring, “I would’ve given anything to get you back.”

Beau didn’t know how to respond, so she simply said the first asshole-y thing that came to mind, with an additional scoff of dick-ish-ness, “You can’t give more than yourself, Jessie.”

“If it takes giving the Traveller the world, I’d do it,” Jester responded, seriously, an unexpected coldness seeping into her tone, causing Beau to stiffen. The head on her shoulder lifted, giving Beau a view of those violet eyes filled with an icy cold determination, that left goosebumps across her skin and a raw warmth grow within her.

“But why? Why would you do that for me?” the words escaped from Beau’s mouth before she could even think to pull them back. Did Beau really want an answer to that question? Did she even _need _an answer to that question?

Jester’s face turned a delightful light purple as she suddenly escaped from Beau’s grasp as she stood, looking everywhere but at her roommate as she paced, “Umm…because…because…well…because…ummmm…because I… because you’re Beau! Because you’re Beau. _That’s_ why I’d save you.” Jester finally turned to face her, hands on hips as she smiled confidently. 

“Because I’m…me?” Beau rolled out the words slowly, wondering if they were just as nonsensical to Jester’s mind as they were to her own. Honestly, Beau’s first response was something close to _“That’s bullshit: tell me the truth” _but this was Jester, not just anyone. Beau didn’t say those things to her.

“Yes, because you’re you and I care about you and you-you told me you loved me that one time and that’s the first time anyone but Mama has told me that so it meant a lot to me and I love you too so, yeah, _we should go to bed now, so GOODNIGHT!!!_” Jester rushed out, her voice going an octave higher than normal towards the end, before Jester disappeared under her covers across the room, back to Beau.

Beau blinked her eyes several times, wondering if what she’d heard was accurate. No, accuracy was _not_ what confused Beau about the statement. Intention: Beau wanted to know the _intention_ of Jester’s words. No, there probably wasn’t anything past the surface of the statement: Jester wasn’t like that. Right?

_Right?_ Beau thought as she laid back on her own bed and rolled into the covers. Despite wanting to think further about the conversation, the touching, the purple cheeks, as soon as Beau’s head hit the pillow, her near-death earlier in the day hit her and her eyelids fell shut in their own accord. 

“Night, Jessie. Love ya,” was all Beau could get out as sleep took her.

And if only Beau had been able to stay awake a bit longer, she would’ve heard a certain tiefling’s sighed response, “Goodnight, Beau. I’m in love with you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look! Another longish chapter yall! What can I say: life needs more wlw 
> 
> In other news, this fic got a shout out on tumblr by one of my personal fave blogs PrincessAmericaChavez.  
So yeah, my life is going good <3
> 
> Maybe I will get all these prompts done by Halloween! Who knows ~


	24. Patience is Not Something I'm Known For (Jester/Fjord)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jester is #pissed at Fjord: he's finally admitted he's in love with her and hasn't even made a move!!!  
Cue Beau & Jester discussion about the stupidity of the half-orc

Jester was known for many things.

Being loud, making dick jokes, playing pranks, hiding her emotions badly, grafitti-ing other gods’ temples, being a fantastic artist, not fully thinking through her actions, missing her mama desperately: honestly, the list went on and on and on...

But waiting for something as hugely important as her first kiss with the guy she’s been into for over a year?

Yeah, no, Jester was _not_ enjoying waiting for Fjord to get his head out of his butt and finally do it.

After the Mighty Nein had barely survived _another_ fight with Obon (and the newest Eldritch horror he’d recruited), Jester had very nearly died, leading Fjord to confess his love for her as he healed her with the little bit that the Wildmother gave him. Being nearly dead, Jester did the sensible thing every heroine in a life threatening situation did: she promptly fainted and was taken off the battlefield by her rippling-muscled, shirtless hero. Truth be told, Fjord still was very much clothed, but he was super buff now, so Jester still felt like she was experiencing something right out of her romance books. However, after the battle ended and more healing was dealt out as Caleb set up the hut for the night, Fjord hadn’t brought up the confession again, let alone done the logical next step according to her novels: kiss her dramatically in the moonlight, giving her the perfect first kiss to start off their whirlwind romance.

Technically, they _did_ already have their first kiss, but that didn’t count because he did it in order to save her life—which was _totally_ romantic—so that she could open their only escape route with the key that she had around her neck—which was _way less_ romantic. Therefore, Jester didn’t count it as their _actual_ first kiss.

As watch was divvied up between everyone—as Jester and Caleb had nearly died, they were excluded form the rotation—Jester flopped down onto her cot with a pout, glaring at the salt and peppered head that was across the fire from her. Come the next morning, Jester continued to glare at the head and accompanying back of the half-orc, hoping for all the world that if she glared long enough, he’d notice her frustrations and come over to fix the ruined evening. She thought this all the way through the portal, through Xhorhaus proper and pretty much all the way to her room in the Xhorhouse until the door slammed behind her.

Falling face first into the mattress, Jester groaned. Fjord admitting his feelings for her that _everyone knew she returned_ was supposed to make things finally happen between them. He saved her from certain death, and now all he needed to do was kiss her senseless in a corridor or his room or on the roof as the moon rose—

“What’s eating you?” Beau asked, her tone just a gruff as usual, before she let out a wince as she fell back onto her bruised ribs, “Fuckkkkkk that hurt.”

“I’d give you more healing, but I’m all out,” Jester said, turning her head to look at her roommate.

“Eh, I’ve gotten worse,” Beau responded, before turning to look at Jester, “But, seriously, why are you in a pissy mood? I thought you’d be jumping up and down with joy after Fjord declared his undying love in the middle of goddamn battle.” Beau rolled her eyes and winced, pressing a hand to her head, “Shit, I think I have a concussion of some sort.”

“Yeah, he confessed that he’s madly in love with me, but he hasn’t made a single move to kiss me! I mean, all the books say that he should’ve tried to make out with me by now!” Jester shouted at the ceiling, gesturing wildly.

“Jess, not that I don’t think you should base life off of your books, but most of the party is black and blue and you basically died,” Beau shrugged, before wincing again, “I’m sure he’s just waiting until we all have a rest that he’ll make another move. Be patient.”

Jester groaned loudly, throwing her arm across her eyes, “But Beauuuuuu: patience is _not_ what I’m known for! I don’t think I could wait very much longer for the ‘perfect kiss moment’! Now that I know he likes me too, I just want to snuggle and cuddle and be romantic!”

“One: ewwwww. Two: please do that in his room, not ours. And, three,” Beau turned to face Jester again, “He _does_ know you have a thing for him, too, right?”

“What do you mean? Of _course_, he knows I’m into him: the whole _party_ knows I’m into him! I’ve been flirting with him since we all met,” Jester responded, throwing her arms into the air.

“Yeah, but you flirt with everyone.”

“But, I only actually mean it when it comes to him.”

“Okay…but what if _he_ doesn’t know that?”

The question made Jester give pause. There was _no way_ Fjord didn’t know how she felt about him: she’d been so upset when he’d been with Avantika, and she took every opportunity to flirt with him, even if it happened to be in the middle of a battle. Yes, she occasionally flirted with other members of the Nein—Caleb was the most fun because he went red—but she never sincerely meant it. And, yeah, she did admit to Nott that one time that she was sort of, kinda, maybe in love with the Traveller, but he’s a _god_! Jester didn’t actually want to be with the Traveller. Fjord understood that, right? 

_I mean, no one is _ that _ dense! He must understand that I don’t actually want to be with the Traveller: I want to be with him! And, I’m not in love with anyone else in the Nein! He must see that_, Jester thought before shaking off the thought.

“Also, there is the whole how you’ve been acting with him thing,” Beau continued, an arm across her forehead.

Jester turned to look at her, her brows knitting together, “How I’ve been acting?”

“Yeah. I mean, right after he told you how he felt, you fainted—“

“I almost _died_: I’m allowed to faint after such a declaration!”

“Okay, but besides that, you’ve been glaring at him at every possible chance and you haven’t said a single word to him,” Beau punctuated the phrase with a serious expression, “If a girl did that to me after I told her I loved her, I’d assume the worst.”

“The worst…?” Jester repeated aloud, looking back up at the ceiling as she replayed the last 12 hours from his perspective. Her fainting…her glares…her utter silence…

Despite her soreness, Jester sat up in bed, looking over to Beau, her voice in a panic, “Oh my god, he doesn’t think I love him back!”

Beau shrugged, wincing again, “Sounds about right. Why didn’t you tell him you loved him, too?”

Dropping back onto her bed, Jester covered her face with her hands, “I thought it was so obvious that I didn’t need to! Oh gods, I totally fucked this up, didn’t I?”

“No, it’s not _totally_ fucked up, but you definitely threw a wrench into your own love life. He probably regrets saying anything or, at least, hopes you don’t remember his confession,” Jester didn’t need to look to know Beau shrugged as she gave another wince and cussed under her breath.

“What do I do, Beau? How do I fix this? I can’t let him think I hate him!” Jester knew she was beginning to panic, but couldn’t find it within herself to care. She’d waited over a year for this to happen and _she_ was the one screwing everything up! To say it was frustrating was an understatement.

“Well, since it’s like early morning and you practically died, I vote to wait until tomorrow,” Beau said, raising a hand to stop Jester’s retort as she glared over at the tiefling, “Don’t give me any crap about the conversation needing to happen right now, either. You waited a year for this guy: you can wait one more day to talk to him about how you feel.”

Jester gave a huff, before turning to glare at the ceiling. Honestly, Beau was right. Despite her earlier panic, sleep was already trying to claim her. She could wait until tomorrow to talk to him. 

“Besides, after taking so damn long to admit he loves you, he kinda deserves to stew for a day or two,” came Beau’s voice from across the room, followed by a loud and long yawn. 

Jester giggled, before adding, “You’re right. We should _totally _let him suffer a little longer.”

“Sounds good to me. Also, I’m totally gonna pass out if we don’t go to bed soon,” another yawn escaped from Beau, “Night, Jessie.”

“Goodnight, Beau. Thanks for listening to me rant,” Jester responded, hearing a mumbled “Anytime,” before the springs in Beau’s bed creaked.

_Soon. We will have that kiss soon_, Jester thought, closing her eyes to dream of jellyfish blooms, ocean waves and tusks.


	25. I Could Really Eat Something (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fjord and Beau have been roped into going to the mall with Molly and Jester. Needless to say, Beau is dying a slow death. However, Fjord is finding that he is enjoying more than he expected.
> 
> Modern College AU with freshly in love Fjorester <3

“Why did we come here with them again?” Beau said, leaning against the railing in front of the store that Molly and Jester had just dashed into with incoherent squeals.

“Probably to carry their bags for them,” Fjord responded, nodding towards the close to a dozen bags that sat on the floor between them.

Beau groaned, dipping her head backwards, “As Jester’s boyfriend that’s your job—“

A small smile found its way on his lips. He honestly didn’t think he’d ever get tired of being called that: “Jester’s boyfriend”.

“—but I am very much _not_ dating Mollymauk. So, why the hell am I carrying his bags around the mall?!” Beau continued, gritting her teeth as she caught sight of Jester and Molly running around the store with arms full of clothing.

Fjord shrugged, “Probably because he told you that Yasha will be joining us after her shift at the gym.”

She gave a grunt of acknowledgement with a muttered, “Yeah maybe,” before going back to glaring at Molly. To be fair to Beau, Molly had made it sound as though Yasha was going to join them in the shopping marathon, only conveniently mentioning the “following her personal training session” that morning. But, Fjord wasn’t all too mad about the slight divergence of the truth, because it meant that he had company while waiting for Jester and Molly to complete their purchases.

Glancing back into the store, Fjord watched as Molly pointed out various pieces of costume jewelry to add to the outfit that he’d chosen for Jester, seeing how her expressions shifted on a dime from disgust to genuine interest. He couldn’t fight the warm, fluttering feeling that consumed him even if he wanted to. Jester was just so expressive and so forward with her thoughts that it took his breath away in the best way possible: it was one of his favorite things about her.

“You are _so_ whipped,” came the snarky voice from his right, shaking Fjord out of his reverie.

Watching as Beau’s smirk widened across her features, Fjord cleared his throat before glancing back at the store in a disinterested manner, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Despite the noise of the indoor mall, he still picked up on Beau’s scoff over the din, “Yeah, you are so whipped for Jessie.”

Before Fjord could decide whether he should deny the accusation or fully accept the truth of the matter and spill his guts to Beau right there and then, complete with further declarations of love and devotion and descriptions of her eyes, a twinkling laugh caught his attention like only she could. He was already grinning when he turned to her, only for it widen he saw the new outfit Jester now wore.

“Fjord! Look at this dress that Molly chose for me!” Jester squealed, spinning around so that the circle skirt could twist around her legs in a truly ethereal fashion. 

“It’s beautiful, Jessie,” he commented, smiling at the happy smile that now graced her lips.

“I might have picked the style, but she chose the color,” Molly said from behind her, before depositing six more bags in the pile at their feet. Shooting Fjord a wink and arm pat, he added, “She said she liked it because it was the color of your eyes.”

“Molly!” Jester let out a peal of laughter as she swatted at Molly, her cheeks delightfully pink, “You’re not just supposed to tell him!”

“How else would he notice, darling?” Molly said with a shrug, before turning his attention to Beau, “Are you going to grab these bags or are you going to let Fjord carry them all?”

“Fuck you, Molly,” Beau snarled, before picking up half of the bags.

“Same to you, dearest Beauregard,” Molly responded, before skipping off in the direction of the next store they were planning on hitting up. Despite her annoyance and obvious mutterings of annoyance, Beau followed him, leaving Jester and Fjord alone for the moment.

“So, you really like the dress?” Jester asked after a moment, brushing a blue strand behind her ear, as she looked at him through her lashes.

Suddenly feeling his mouth go dry, Fjord gulped, before saying as smoothly as possible,“It makes the most beautiful girl I know look even more enchanting. What’s not to like?”

He was rewarded by aforementioned girl wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a soft kiss that was much too short in Fjord’s personal opinion. Pulling away a bit, Jester giggled into his dazed expression, a blush still coating her cheeks, “You know, you are _wayyyy_ too smooth for your own good.”

“How else am I supposed to impress a jewel such as yourself, Sapphire?” he retorted with an eyebrow raise, earning a further deepened blush from Jester.

She gave his chest a light swat as she pulled away from his embrace reluctantly, “Maybe buy me dinner some time.”

“I could really eat something, I guess,” Fjord responded, feeling his heart flutter at the giggle that Jester released. Picking up the remaining bags from the floor with one hand, he interlaced his free hand in one of hers, “How about pasta from that place near campus?”

Jester snuggled up against his arm, pressing a light kiss to his shoulder—causing further heart flutters in Fjord’s chest—before looking up at him with an adoring expression, “That sounds perfect, Fjord. I’d love that.”

_And I love you_, Fjord thought with a sigh as they caught up with their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What can I say? I'm a freaking sucker for Fjorester.
> 
> Also, I am planning on writing six pieces in the next 24 hours. Wish me luck.


	26. You Keep Me Warm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fjord had something eating away at him and he knew exactly what it was called: jealousy.  
Things come to a head when he catches Jester and Caleb having a midnight discussion in the library

There was no way to lie his way out of this one. As charming as he was, Fjord had never been able to con himself into believing any of his own lies. 

Therefore, he knew that what he felt was jealousy. Pure, unadulterated jealousy. And it was all because that freaking wizard got himself almost killed during a fight again.

Honestly, Fjord knew he shouldn’t have been annoyed about Caleb’s penchant for death blows. But with a certain tiefling taking on the mantel of “Caleb’s personal healer” because, in her words not Fjord’s, “he’s like super powerful, you know? And, if we want to win _(insert beast here)_ we have to make sure he doesn’t pass out”, it was practically inevitable that Fjord would begin to almost wish he, too, was getting hit.

However, the jealousy came to both its worst and its end when he’d seen Jester tending to Caleb’s wounds in the library.

He hadn’t meant to spy on them, honest. Fjord had just wanted to ask Caleb’s opinion on where to get certain more rare spell components, when he’d heard soft voices coming from the library. He raised his hand to knock, but as he came upon the door, it slightly opened a crack revealing a shirtless Caleb and blushing Jester. Eyes widening, Fjord slowly lowered his hand and stood still as their words washed over him.

“…and then, the Traveller said to add that special herb to mix. Even though it makes it super weird smelling, he says its supposed to help with the pain and keep away infection, so that should be good, right?” Jester’s voice lilted uncertainly as she spread the paste across Caleb’s chest, the soft blush across her cheeks deepening. Fjord could’ve sworn that she still had healing spells left for that day earlier, but as she took out the wrappings from her healer’s pack, he guessed he must’ve been mistaken.

Caleb chuckled, giving a slight wince before saying, “That is good, Blueberry.”

Jester bit her bottom lip as began to wrap the fabric around his bare chest. Seeing her so close to Caleb half-naked made Fjord’s stomach turn, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene unfolding in front of him. 

“All done!” her voice pitched in that awkward way that always indicate that Jester had been thinking about something that she wished to hide, as she gentle patted the wrappings over the deep gash across Caleb’s chest.

Both Jester and Fjord’s breath caught when Caleb took hold of her hand before she pulled away completely.

“Jester,” Caleb’s voice broke through the tense silence. 

“Yes?” her voice was breathy, as Caleb brought a hand to her face, caressing her cheek.

Fjord knew he should’ve closed his eyes or at least turned away, but he couldn’t. It felt as if something held his feet to the floor as his eyes stayed open, unblinking as he watched Caleb pull Jester in towards his face. Fjord felt his heart stutter painfully as Jester slipped her fingers into Caleb’s hair as she deepened the kiss between them. His lungs burned as he saw them embrace one another tighter, as Jester slipped onto Caleb’s lap, the wizard’s hands roaming her back and pulling her in tighter against him.

“I love you. I’ve always loved you,” Caleb whispered against her lips.

Jester’s responding giggle, broke Fjord’s heart. What was left of it was pulverized to dust as she answered Caleb, “I love you, too. I thought I loved someone else before…but you’ve always been there for me, and you’ve loved me when he never did. Where he left me chilled, you keep me warm.”

“I’ll always warm you, Blueberry. I promise to never let go,” Caleb whispered, before pressing kisses to her jawline.

“Promise me one more thing though?” Jester asked, tipping Caleb’s chin back up to face her.

“Anything,” the words were so reverent it physically hurt Fjord.

“Let’s keep this quiet for now. I don’t want to tell anyone else in the Nein yet,” Jester said, pressing a kiss to middle of Caleb’s forehead, earning a soft laugh from the wizard.

“As you wish,” Caleb responded before pulling her face down into another kiss, which she responded to immediately.

Suddenly, Fjord was able to find it within himself to move again, and he stumbled down the hall to his room, not caring whether they heard him. Closing the door behind him, Fjord pressed his back against it, trying to keep himself together as he felt his legs begin to give out under him. 

Jester loved Caleb, and Caleb loved her.

They were together now.

And, Fjord had to pretend like he didn’t know, that he didn’t see.

It was this last thought that destroyed the mask he wore, pressing his hands into his face as he began to cry.

————————————————————

As soon as Fjord disappeared into his room, the hooded figure snapped his fingers and the image of Caleb and Jester intertwined in each other dissolved into green dust, its face twisted into a smile. Flowing out of the library, the hooded figure motioned the door closed behind it. Wanting to confirm that its illusion had truly been believable, it popped its spectral head into Fjord’s room, taking no small amount of glee in the crushed and dazed expression that the half-orc wore. With a wave of its hand, tears began to flow down Fjord’s cheek, sobs escaping him much to the figure’s happiness. Satisfied, the figure flowed into the room beside the half-orc's, taking a seat on the end of his ever-faithful Jester’s bed, waking her from a deep slumber.

“Traveller? What are you doing here?” Jester blearily asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

The Traveller smiled before pressing a single finger to its lips, nodding towards the monk across the room.

Jester nodded and added more quietly, “I’m so happy you’re here. It’s been awhile since you visited.”

“It has. But know that I’m always watching over the best of my flock,” the Traveller responded.

Her expression fell slightly at his answer, before she glanced up at the green-cloaked figure sadly, “Even though I can’t even get one of my friends to join your side? You know that I tried really hard with Fjord, right? He just…wanted to be with the Wild Mom. I’m sorry to have failed you.”

The Traveller laughed softly, before pressing a hand to Jester’s cheek, “I was admittedly a bit upset at first. But, I know it wasn’t your fault, Jester. I’m sure that now he _regrets_ having chosen her,” if Jester had been able to see its eyes, she would’ve seen how they glistened with mirth, “You have always been the best of my chosen, brilliant in all your tricks,”

She leaned into the hand, giving the Traveller that same soft smile she always did, “You really are like the very best, Traveller.”

“And I want the best for you as well, my dear, dear Jester. Now, go back to sleep. There is much more mischief to bring to the world,” the Traveller said, placing a kiss to her forehead before dissolving into mist itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I'M SORRY!!!!! But THE ANGST!!!  
2\. You cannot make me believe that the Traveller isn't pissed that Fjord didn't join the cult. Also, I have this headcanon that the Traveller is nonbinary. Like the Traveller is super chill about being called "he/his" or "she/hers", but honestly, the Traveller is like #Whatever You Think I Am, I'm Chill With, As Long As You Know I Can Smite Your Ass  
3\. Also, remember when I said "I'm writing 6 stories in 24 hrs": it was a lie. It was Thursday AND Halloween. Writing was definitely not happening.


	27. Can You Wait For Me? (Caleb/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caleb asked her to wait. So Jester did. She waited. And she still is.

It had been three years since she’d last seen him.

Three solid, heartbreakingly-long years since she’d been able to hold him, touch him, slide her fingers through his hair, hear his soft chuckle, see his small smiles at her teasing words.

Three solid years since Caleb, dressed in that clean-cut suit, held her hands and asked, “Can you wait for me?” before the guards ripped him away from her

And Jester did as promised. She waited.

“Why?” her mother had asked during the holidays following the trial. “You deserve to be happy. My daughter deserves happiness.”

“Why?” Fjord, her childhood best friend, asked after she’d denied his offer of a date. “We could be great together, Jessie.”

“Why?” her boss asked, leaning across her desk in his signature green coat. “You don’t want to be with someone who’s insane. That’s not any fun at all.”

“Because he asked me to wait. And I will,” was Jester’s answer every time.

The only ones who never seemed to question her choice were Beau and Nott. They seemed to understand that even though he denied every single one of her visitations, that even though he returned her letters without response, that even though he hadn’t talked to her since the trial, Caleb wasn’t really gone from her life. Beau and Nott drove her to the facility every Monday afternoon. They wrote their own letters to slip in with hers. They went with her to visit the lawyer to try and get the verdict overturned every Friday.

Three years of the same song and dance every week.

Taking a seat at the same table as usual Jester considered that Einstein quote, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Maybe she was the crazy one. Maybe she should be the one in this place. Maybe Jester should have told the jury that she helped, that she had lured the Vollstreckers there, that while Caleb started the fire she—

“Jester.”

She froze. Today was the day she finally snapped. She must’ve. He didn’t…he couldn’t…

“Jester,” the voice repeated, causing Jester to look up and met those blue eyes that she’d missed more than she realized. “You’re here.”

“Caleb?” she got up, her hands twitching at her sides, eyes beginning to water.

He got a few steps closer and nodded, his hands twisting between themselves, as he nodded.

“Oh, Caleb!” Jester threw her arms around him, pulling him in tight. 

It took only a moment for him to embrace her back, pressing his forehead against her own, those calloused fingers brushing against her tear-stained cheeks. He repeated himself, “You’re here. You’re really here.”

Jester let out a watery laugh, “I come every Monday. Every single Monday for the past three years.”

“I’m sorry. I…couldn’t,” his voice quaked, as he pressed a kiss to her forehead, “I couldn’t see you because…what if you stopped coming…what if you moved on?”

“Caleb, you big dummy!” Jester said loudly, causing all eyes in the room to move to them, “You’ve been avoiding me because you thought I’d leave you?!”

Caleb just blinked, before nodding.

“You are _so_ lucky I’m in love with you, because I haven’t seen you in like ten billion days and I missed you like so bad and everyone kept _testing_ me and bugging me about my promise to you and—“

“You still love me?” Caleb said, a small smile growing on his face before confusion took over, “Promise?”

“You asked me, on the day of the trial, to wait for you,” Jester responded, matter of factly, giving him a quick shrug, “So, I did it. I’ve been waiting.”

“You…waited? For me?” his voice was shocked, but the small smile on his lips grew.

“Always,” Jester said, pressing her palms to either side of his face, bringing her forehead against his once more, “Forever and always.”


	28. Enough! I Heard Enough (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of Chapter 24!
> 
> Fjord has been having a terrible, awful, no good day ever since the Nein battled Obon and crew the day prior.  
Maybe with a bit of communication, hugs and comfort from a certain tiefling his day will turn around?

Fjord was straight up not having a good time.

Okay, maybe “not having a good time” was an understatement.

As Fjord awoke for the day, blinking blearily at the moonlight that leaked into the room during the perpetual night of Xhorhas, Fjord was absolutely, positively miserable, and he could honestly say this was collectively the worst 24 hours of his entire life.

First off, they got into another losing battle against Obon and his Gang of Misfit Tanks, who seemed to have their sole mission being to utterly destroy the Mighty Nein, both in terms of bodily harm and self-confidence. Seriously, Fjord was very close to having a third identity crisis in a year due to the Nein’s utter inability to squeak out a win against this troupe. To him, it seemed only fitting that this battle led to not one, but two of their party falling unconscious. 

The second thing to disrupt his day occurred when one of those that fell unconscious was Jester. The wonderful, beautiful, fun, warm tiefling that he had recently realized that he’d fallen deeply in love with over the months they’ve spent together had been hit so hard by one of them that she was out cold. He’d known for a while now that he was head over heels for her, that he’d do anything to keep her smiling and that every time she whispered “Thank you, Fjord” he felt like he’d fallen just a little bit more in love with her. So, seeing her fall in battle, seeing her vibrant eyes dim as she splashed into the murky waters of the swamp they were fighting in, broke him. Almost immediately, he’d thrown himself towards her, not caring whether the beast he and Beau fought would strike him, because he needed to get to Jester. 

And, out of breath, he finally did. Cupping her jaw, Fjord pressed his forehead against hers and whispered desperately to the Wildmother to heal her, to give Jester all of the healing that he was allowed to give in the Wildmother’s name. He only released his hold, when he heard Jester gasp awake.

“Fjord?” she croaked, as he watched the cuts on her face slowly fade as more of the healing magic leaked into her.

“Oh, Jessie!” he’d proclaimed, pulling her in to his arms without a second thought to the battle that continued to rage around them. He pressed his face into her neck, whispering into her skin, “I thought I lost you.”

“Pssh! I’m _fine._ Just a little woozy,” she answered, pulling herself away to smile at him brightly, “Thanks for the healing, Fjord.”

And it was then, staring down into those grateful and caring violet eyes, that the third worst thing of the day happened: Fjord opened his big, stupid mouth and said he loved her. And Jester promptly fainted.

To be honest, Fjord wasn’t particularly upset about telling Jester Lavorre that he loved her. He’d been meaning to tell her for several weeks now and he likes to think that, if he’d just had a bit more time to plan the confession, he would’ve said it in a memorably, charming way, or at least, something worthy of those romance novels she reads. But with the sounds of battle reaching his ears once again, and taking in that warm, soft expression on Jester’s face, he just burst the words out at her. He also might have chastised her for being in the very center of the battle as a cleric. Highly unromantic setting with brash words: it was fitting that she fainted. In a word, he’d call the experience "traumatizing".

But even with how royally he’d screwed up the actual bit about telling her, that’s not what put the cherry on top of his awful day. 

No, that title was given to what immediately followed that battle and the subsequent walk back to Xhorhas: a silent, fuming Jester. 

Those who spent any amount of time with the tiefling knew that Jester had always been a happy-go-lucky person. True, this was often a mask to cover how truly distraught she was about the current happenings in Wildemount, but she still was fun and joyful in her very soul. Her name was “Jester” for the love of the gods! And, of course, there was also the “silent” part. Jester Lavorre was simply never silent. She loved to speak about nothing and everything all at the same time: Fjord found it to be one of her most endearing traits. Jester was the joyful noise to his peaceful silence.

And after Fjord had blurted out his feelings for her during the battle, Jester was doing both of those so-very-not Jester things and Fjord could just _feel_ it directed specifically at him. He felt her glare at him while he sat up with Cad to take the first watch of the night. He felt her silent rage as they walked through Xhorhas proper. And he wasn’t able to escape it until he’d heard the door slam in the room next to his.

Pressing the heels of his palms in to his sockets the next morning, Fjord silently prayed to his patron that this was all some fantastical nightmare and that the entire day prior had just be his own imagination running wild. But as he felt the ache settle in his bones and the bruises begin to throb, Fjord _knew_ it hadn’t been. 

The Nein had gotten beaten again by Obon.

He almost lost Jester Lavorre.

He admitted his love to her and she _hated_ him for it.

Getting up from his bed, Fjord began to pace back and forth in his room, softly attempting to calm his scrambled nerves, “It’s fine. It’s all fine! You are totally and completely fine!” 

Four paces left, four paces right. 

“People admit to their friends all the time that they love them! Platonic love is a reasonable thing to tell someone about!” 

One, two, three, four. Four, three, two, one. 

“And she might not even remember what you said! That is a strong possibility as she did faint!” 

Another set of steps back and forth.

“But, then again, she _might_ have heard you and is just…is just…”

Fjord groaned as he dropped his face into his hands, pacing the floor faster.

_One, two, three, four. Four, three, two, one. One, two, three…_

How could he have been so dumb to tell her that then, or even _at all_?! He had _no idea_ how Jester felt for him when he’d said it and, sure he had hoped that she’d actually been interested in him with her constant flirting but obviously, that had not been the case. Fjord felt like he’d jumped off of the highest cliff into out of sight waters. Instead of landing in warm soothing waves, he’d just crashed straight into shark-infested depths.

Worst of all, he’d ruined any chance to even stick around her. If she was reacting so poorly to his confession, it was more than little likely that Jester would simply cut him off, pretend like he didn’t exist when the Nein had planning meetings. Maybe… maybe she’d hate him enough to leave the group. Fjord pressed a hand to his chest, a dull ache growing under his palm at the possibility of never seeing her again. Recalling all those conversations they’d had about escaping this adventurer’s life, Jester with her loving mother had some place to escape to if she really wanted to go. Would Fjord’s unwanted love be enough to finally push her over the edge and leave? 

Letting this new thought crash over him, Fjord stopped in his tracks. Pressing a fist to his mouth, he bit down as hard as he could without letting his tusks break skin, trying to distract himself from the need to scream.

“Fjord, can you stop pacing in here? Because your steps are like supppppper loud,” came a lilting voice from his doorway, freezing Fjord to his spot in the middle of the room. 

He didn’t need to move his head to know who stood there. He’d know her voice in the busiest of streets, in the loudest of markets. But Fjord still turned his head, slowly turning towards the now open doorway. And, in it, he found that same blue, lovely tiefling that he expected, leaning against the frame and quirking an eyebrow at him. He tried to say a charming retort to the statement, but found his brain has ceased all motor function and his mouth simply hung open, with no sound coming out.

Whether it be his cursed or brilliant luck, she walked further into the room, her hands intertwined behind her as she continued speaking, a teasing smile dancing across her lips, “You know, as someone who like almost totally died the other day, I need all the rest I can get. So walking _super_ loud won’t be helpful for my beauty rest. But I have to wonder…what has you pacing, Fjord?”

Fjord gulped, trying desperately to wet his dry mouth as Jester circled him, eyeing him up and down as she passed out of his peripheral, just to drift back in a moment later. Despite the early hour, Jester was already dressed in one of her new Xhorhasian dresses. 

_She’s all ready to leave, _Fjord thought in passing, watching as the sleeves almost dragged the floor whenever she let her arms rest at her sides. Despite that painful thought—or maybe because of it?—Fjord admired how the dark color complimented her skin, the bright embroidery on the edges contrasting nicely. He was sure if she spun, the sleeves would almost look like wings.

“You look lovely,” came a voice that sounded remarkably like his own, as Jester was about to pass behind him again, causing her to pause and turn to him with wide eyes. 

Oh no: Fjord _had_ actually said that.

He slapped his hand across his mouth almost as an after thought._ Shut up, shut up, shut up—_

“Ummmm,” she said, a soft purple glow on her cheeks as she continued her circle around him, “Thank you, Fjord.”

“Any day, anytime,” he heard himself say, wincing at how it came out just a little too sincere, causing the steps behind him to pause once again.

“…I don’t know how to respond to that,” he heard her say from behind him, as the bed gave a squeak as Jester took a seat.

Fjord turned to find her hiding her face in her hands. _She’s here to tell me she’s leaving and that it’s my fault._ The thought felt very much like a punch in the gut. However, as he recovered from it, it somehow buoyed his confidence. 

He released a nervous chuckle, “I mean, well…” he took a deep breath before continuing, taking comfort in the fact that he had nothing left to lose as he took a seat beside her on the bed, “You always have been and always will be beautiful to me, Jester.”

Jester let out an unnaturally high squeal, shaking her face in her hands, shocking Fjord.

“Was that a happy squeal or an upset squeal?” he heard himself ask.

It took a moment for her to look at him, but when she did, Jester’s face was an unreadable mask. “Fjord, I have a question for you,” she said, reaching out and taking one of his hands in her own.

He nodded, finding himself getting lost in those violet eyes of hers. Fjord found himself thinking about how he’d happily drown in their depths, even if what he currently saw in them was more guarded than what he was used to. 

“Anything,” he said, again too sincere, but he didn’t find shame in it this time. This was the end for him and her anyway: might as well lay the rest of his cards on the table.

Jester began, bracketing her hands around his her tone dangerously serious, “I came to your room to ask you something very important…” She paused, closing her eyes to take a deep breath before matching his gaze once again, “Fjord, why do you love me?”

_Oh, I’m still asleep_, Fjord thought as he blinked several times to see if he was able to wake himself up. 

Because there was no way that Jester Lavorre was currently sitting on his bed asking him this question. Jester knew how wonderful she was: hell, _everyone_ knew how wonderful she was. She would not come in here and ask him why he loved her, no one would. Everyone fell for Jester Lavorre in some manner.

“Fjord?” this dream-Jester asked, tilting her head as he slowly removed a hand from hers.

“You can have it right back in a moment,” he responded, before pinching himself hard on his arm. Fjord frowned as it simply gave a little ache, muttering, “That usually works…Ah well, back up wake-up strategy.”

Dream Jester pulled his hand back to hers before he could bite down on the finger. “Fjord, what are you doing?!” she shouted, looking horrified as he attempted to pinch himself again with the other hand she’d freed.

“Waking myself up, of course,” came his disinterested reply, “Jester wouldn’t come in here and ask me to explain my love to her. This is all a dream and isn’t real.”

“Why wouldn’t—?” Dream Jester began, violet eyes flaring in confusion, before shaking her head with a giggle. “Nevermind. I think this will be _much_ more fun than how I planned this.”

“You had a plan—_Jester!”_ Fjord began, before he found this dream version of the woman he loved taking a seat on his lap, arms curling around his neck.

Eyes landing on him once more, now sparkling with mischief, “Well, since this is a dream, I thought we could be more comfortable.”

Words died on his tongue, as he felt his cheeks redden, only able to nod in response. His arms wrapped around her waist to steady her. A shiver of happiness passed through him as Jester carefully leaned her head on his chest, both sighing happily at the stance.

“This is nice,” she whispered against his neck, causing goosebumps all over his skin.

Funny, even during his most vivid dreams his body never reacted like this. Maybe…

“You didn’t answer my question though,” the imagined girl in his arms said, pulling away just far enough to look into his eyes, “Why do you love me, Fjord?”

“This is all in my head, so shouldn’t you know?”

Jester waved her hand around, seeming to bat away the idea, “Yeah, yeah, sure. But what if, I want to hear _you_ say it out loud? So, you know, you can like maybe tell the real Jester it, so that you two can fall even more in love. And maybe share rooms at inns, or sleep next to each other when we camp…” The tiefling’s eyes sparkled brighter for a moment, “Or or or! Maybe you two can even kiss. Like, _a lot_. I’m sure she would _totally_ be down for that.”

Fjord chuckled, pressing a hand to his forehead, a grin stretching across his lips, _Wow, I’m so in love with her, even the dream version of her is practically the same as real life_. 

He shrugged after a moment, releasing a sigh, “Well, since the real Jester is probably leaving at the moment, I guess I might as well tell you why I love her.”

Dream Jester’s brow furrowed for a moment, opening her mouth to respond, but Fjord continued speaking regardless. His subconscious wanted him to discuss this, so he would.

“Jester, I love you because you’re beautiful. The moment I met you I thought that, and I still think it now. Your eyes are the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen and I want to see your smile every minute of every day.” 

The phantom in his arm’s eyes widened impossibly large as its cheeks flushed to the most lovely shade of purple he’d ever seen. Fjord pressed on, holding her just a little bit tighter.

“But, it’s not just that you’re beautiful. No, you’re so strong and tough: I mean, you could probably bench press me, which I find ridiculously hot by the way. You can absolutely take care of yourself in a fight, taking down the biggest creatures out there—again, extremely hot.“

The tiefling giggled, pressing a hand to her lips. Without thinking, he took the hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. It felt so tantalizingly real…

“You can make just about anyone laugh with how funny you are. Then there are your ridiculous plans—“

“You love my plans!” she shot back, a half-hearted pout on her face. 

Fjord leaned his forehead against hers, “Yes, I absolutely do. I love how amazingly insane they are, though that doesn’t alleviate any of the little heart attacks I have thinking about you getting caught graffitiing temples or store signs.”

Another giggle greeted him as a blue hand caressed his cheek, keeping his forehead against hers.

Taking a deep breath in, he froze. The air _smelled_ like Jester. Dreams, or at least his dreams, never smelt like anything. Could this be…was this…?

“Go on,” the lilting voice suggested, gently rubbing a thumb across his cheek.

“You always smell amazing,” Fjord blabbered on, tightening his arms around her, feeling a bit of hope building in the pit of his stomach, “Like a cinnamon and sugar dipped donut. Which is ridiculous, because sometimes we’ve been traveling for weeks and you still smell amazing. Same goes for you dresses: they are always gorgeous and fluffy and look oh-so-good on you and always look pristine even after the goriest of battles.”

The girl in his arms pulled away slightly, to smile up at him, “That is such a lie! I always drop food on my clothes and stain them.”

“Well, they always seem pristine to me,” he replied, hyper aware of her leather gloves on his neck, the way the rivets of her corset were cool on his skin. He scanned her face, examined every freckle on her cheeks, seeing the way the chains on her horns rustled as she tilted her head back to look at him, her violet eyes filled with…

_Love. That is what love looks like_, Fjord thought, and that’s when he knew. Because he wasn’t a creative man. Charming, yes. A decent fighter, absolutely. But, even in his most insane of daydreams, Fjord could never think up that look in Jester’s eyes.

“Is that all you love about me?” Jester—the _real_ Jester—whispered, her smile soft, as her eyes flitted over his face happily.

“No, that isn’t it,” he began, unable to tear his gaze away from those eyes. Those beautiful, beautiful eyes. His voice lowered to a whisper as well, “I love you because of how deeply you love the world. You want everyone to be happy some day. You want the fighting to stop, for the bad guys to disappear. For the world to be safe for everyone who you hold dear: the Nein, your mom, your dad… Watching you care so deeply for all of us was the final push.”

Before he knew it, Fjord brought a slightly shaking hand to her cheek. She nuzzled into it automatically, kissing the palm of his hand, igniting the skin. He felt his heartbeat begin to race.

Jester was in his lap.

Jester was in his arms.

And Fjord was telling her why he loved her.

Scraping his teeth across his top lip, he gulped as her eyes shot down to his lips, catching the movement. A warm fire was beginning to smolder in her gaze when she’d finally met his eyes once more.

“When I told you I loved you yesterday, I meant it,” the charged air around them almost too much to bear, “I want you to be happy. I want to make you smile and laugh and help ease the hurt at the end of the day. I want to be your rock and your shelter, even when the gods themselves want to fight us…which is pretty much the average Grissen for us.”

Jester giggled, making Fjord’s heart swell, allowing him to say the next part with ease.

“Jessie, I don’t know if you love me, too, but even if you don’t, I just want to let you know, that I’ll be here for you, always. I won’t ever let you feel alone again, if you’ll let me. Because, by the gods, Jester, I have hopelessly fallen in love with you.”

Fjord watched as the words sank in, tears appearing at the corners and slowly rolling down her cheeks. He brushed them away with his thumbs, feeling the oh-so-soft skin underneath.

“That was enough. I heard enough,” Fjord heard her choke out, making his heart give a painful squeeze. Was this it? Was this the end? Was this when she broke his heart? That Fjord read her eyes wrong, and she didn’t actually feel the same, and who was he kidding? She wouldn’t love him when—

“Fjord, I love you, too,” she choked out a moment after, as she gazed up at him, eyes suddenly apologetic, as she rushed out, “And I’m so sorry for being mad at you yesterday! I really, really didn’t mean it! I wanted you to kiss me super heroically after the battle, and you didn’t so I got mad. And then you didn’t in the morning or when we got back to the house, so I thought maybe you didn’t really mean it…” 

The hands gripping his shirt tightened just a little, her violet eyes slipping slightly into panic, as her words sped up, “So, I wanted to ask you about it. And oh my gosh, did you say all the right things! I love you, I love you, I love you! And I’m not leaving the Nein, like ever, because you guys are my family and I know you think this is a dream. But it isn’t! This is real. I’m really here. So, um, yeah—“

“Jester?” Fjord interrupted, a smile stretching across his face.

“Yeah?” came her out of breath response. 

Wow, did that single word do things to him. Fjord closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, before meeting those eyes once more.

“Can I kiss you?” he whispered, making no point to hide the glance he made towards her lips.

And, suddenly, Jester was closer. Her nose brushing up against his, her breath he could feel on his lips.

“Please. Do,” she breathed back.

And, like the hopeless fool he was, Fjord kissed Jester Lavorre, already unable to wait for the moment he could kiss her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo, guess who is back from NaNoWriMo caused hiatus! And here are some answers to the FAQs I’ve gotten about this project:  
Did I finish my 50k draft? Yup.  
Do I like my 50k draft? Nope.  
What is my 50k draft called? "Something Sweet This Way Comes".  
Am I willing to tell anyone what my draft was about? Unlikely.  
Is it fan fiction? Nope, but I should've made it fan fiction.
> 
> Anyway, I hope this chapter was worth the wait, with it’s blatant Fjorester fluff with just a tad bit Fjord-based overthinking.  
Fun fact: this is the longest piece of fan fiction I’ve written for a fandom ever.


	29. I'm Doing This For You (Beau & Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jester has a problem. What kind of friends would the Nein be if they didn't help her kick this bad habit?
> 
> A slightly crack fic set in the Modern College AU

As soon as Jester came in to the floor’s common room, she knew that Beau had lied about the sundae bar.

This feeling was only further established by the way all her friends were seated in a half-circle, with a singular chair in the center, which Beau was standing behind, motioning Jester forward to. She felt a moment of unease as her roommate looked up at her with a seriousness that was seldom seen on her tan face, taking her own seat across the circle.

“Um, hi guys. What’s up?” Jester squeaked out, more than a bit aware of how intensely everyone gazed at her as she took a seat in the empty chair. As she moved to get more comfortable, it squeaked almost as high-pitched as she had.

“Jessie, this is an intervention,” Caduceus said, his voice as calm as it always seemed to be, taking a long sip from a cup of tea.

“An intervention? Whattttt? I don’t need an intervention for anything!” Jester responded quickly, trying to keep calm as her friends shared looks amongst themselves. She smiled that usual warm smile, trying to fight off the nagging feeling that Beau had found her stash. The stash that Jester had taped to the right back corner of her desk, since she knew that if Beau found it, it would be game over, the end of life as Jester knew it.

“Jessie, when I was cleaning our dorm, I found this,” Beau’s voice interrupted Jester’s spiraling thoughts, before a tightly wrapped package plopped down into her lap. 

Jester glanced up at Beau, a guilty smile covering her face as she shrugged, “I was holding it for someone else?”

Her assembled friends all let out a small chuckle, but was quickly cut off by Beau giving Fjord a swift kick to the shin.

“_Oww_,” he said, wrinkling his nose as he gave Beau a quick glare. 

“Fjord, you helped me plan this. Go, do your thing,” Beau shot back, before turning back to Jester and grabbing the cling filmed package, “I’ll be taking this.”

Jester tried to make her pout as convincing as possible, “Beauuuuuu! Come on!!!”

“Jessie, we are your friends,” Fjord said suddenly, kneeling in front of her, hands holding her hands gently.

Jester tried and failed not to blush, feeling his slightly calloused hands in her own. And with him looking up at her with those insanely beautiful golden eyes of his! God, Jester could just stare at him all day.

“So, it is with great regret, that we have to help Beau do this,” he continued, the words cooling her heart rate.

“What…what do you mean?” Jester began, feeling the blood drain from her face as she heard the scissors snip through the layers of cling film. Her head snapped up and towards Beau, who was beginning to _cut open_ the candy wrappers!

“No! Beau, you can’t! You can only get those from Nicodranas! I had my mom send them _special_!” Jester shouted as she rushed towards Beau, kicking Fjord in the face in her haste. Before she could get any closer, she felt strong arms clamp down on her, lifting her with ease off of the ground. Glaring up as she struggled, Jester met eyes with Yasha. “Put me down right now! You can’t let Beau do this!”

“Jester, I’m doing this for you,” Beau said, as Jester could only watch as Nott took a hammer and crushed the Durian candies one by one. “Well, technically, it’s for me, too, because god, do those make your breath smell awful.”

“Nooooooo!” Jester screamed, watching as Caleb brushed the crushed candies into the trash can underneath, “Beau, please. Those are my favorite!”

“Yeah I know. But, if we are going to make our roommate-ship work, we can’t have these in the room,” was Beau’s response, before gesturing towards Jester with the scissors, “Honestly, I wouldn’t have given a shit if you didn’t accidentally leave one of those candies in a pocket while doing wash.”

“I said I was sorry! It was an accident!” Jester tried kicking at Yasha’s shins, but the iron vice did not let up in the slightest. “This gives you no right to rate all that beautiful candy!”

“My clothes reeked of durian until I could wash them again!” Beau glared back, before turning back to Nott, “I think we need to use the bigger mallet.”

“Nooooo!” Jester screamed again, watching helplessly as the candies were crushed to dust.


	30. I'm with You + Scared Me? (Fjord/Jester)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fjord and Jester have been blissfully dating for about a year. What could go wrong?
> 
> The Modern Surprise Pregnancy AU that absolutely no one asked for!

For the first moment in her entire life, Jester was speechless.

Staring at the word “Pregnant” on her fifth testing stick, all words had left her brain. More or less collapsing on to the plush pink bathroom rug that sat beneath her, Jester’s brain ceased functioning besides repeating the word “Pregnant” over and over and over again in an increasingly louder tone, as her ears seemed to start to ring with the truth of the matter.

She hadn’t believed the first test at all: false predictions were common!

After the second and third, Jester was starting to worry.

The fourth had been when the anxiety was firmly sinking in. While taking her seat and angling herself to best pee on the exposed portion of the stick again, Jester had promised herself that whatever the fifth pregnancy test, she would believe, that this test that she was aiming for was going to be THE answer to what the hell was going on.

So seeing it show those two little lines again for the fifth time in a row, Jester felt faint.

She, Jester Lavorre, was almost entirely certain that she was in fact very much pregnant.

“Okay, so, I am preggers,” Jester said aloud, the words echoing around the gorgeous space. Complete with a jetted bathtub, rainwater shower head, and a double vanity, it had been the main reason why Jester had insisted on living here with Beau. After taking her first bubble bath there, it had easily become her favorite room in the whole apartment. It seemed only fitting that everything Jester had expected out of life would come crashing down at that very moment.

Which ultimately led to the even worse fact: Fjord was the one who got her pregnant.

“Oh no,” Jester squeaked out, before pressing down on her cheeks hard, “Don’t cry. Don’t cry.Don’t. Cry.” But despite her own words, Jester felt fat tears leaking out the corners and falling down her hands. “No, no, no, nooooo! This isn’t supposed to happen yet!!! Not yet!” She crushed her hands against her face harder before shaking her head furiously in a vain attempt to stop crying before Fjord came over for dinner.

Fjord had _finally_ professed his love to her last year, after Jester had come back from the hospital for an appendicitis case that had gone wildly off course into “fatal” realms. The two had been together ever since, working all the way from fancy dates at fancy restaurants, to just hanging out on the couch with Beau and arguing over whether to watch “Deep Sea Tuna” or “The Great British Bake Off”. And now, they’d fast forward to being parents? Yeah, like Fjord would want that.

That thought just made Jester want to cry even harder, “No, no, no, no. I…I can’t do this! We-we can’t be _pregnant_!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, Jessie! I got provisions!” Fjord called out, groceries in hand as he nudged the door behind him closed with a hip. When silence greeted him, he called again, “Jess?”

_I could’ve sworn I saw her car outside_… he thought, brow furrowed, as he placed all the food he’d gotten at the store for their cooking date that evening. While Jester was just as fond of good food as he was, Fjord was absolutely the better cook of the two. It helped that he lived with Caduceus, the literal chef of their friend group, but Fjord was almost certain that despite her love of all things sweet, Jester had never been the room when someone made a donut.

The memory of Jester trying to make herself churros before her medical scare and the state of the kitchen made Fjord chuckle and shake his head. Of course, Beau was extremely displeased at finding the mess that Jess and he made, especially when Beau had found them both coated in cinnamon sugar sludge and uncooked dough in their hair. God, how Fjord wanted to kiss Jester that day, as she stared up at him, violet eyes sparkling with mischief as she threw sprinkles at him…

He was shook from his daydreams when he heard something akin to a cat’s yowl of sadness echo throughout the apartment. Putting away the last of the perishable items into the perpetually empty fridge, Fjord went to look threw the apartment for the noise. Had Jester accepted to cat sit for Caleb again without telling him?

As he walked closer to Jester’s room, he stopped only steps away from the bathroom, his heart sinking as he recognized the sound.

Jester _was_ here. And she was sobbing her heart out.

Fjord slowed his steps as he approached to slightly ajar door, pressing the door open at a crawl as he peaked his head in, “Jester?”

The curl-covered hair of his girlfriend popped up at the sound of his voice, giving him an absolutely clear view of her slightly swollen, red-rimmed eyes, tear tracks glistening in the slanting light. Fjord’s heart ached at the sight of her, and without another thought he’d collapsed onto the ground and pulled her into this lap, arms locking around her. He pressed his lips to her hairline, murmuring soothing words against her skin as he rocked them slightly. It made his heart burn further at how she melted in his arms, hands bunched in work shirt as she sobbed harder for several long moments.

Once it was clear that the tears had begun to lessen, Fjord pulled back slightly, brushing away the last of the tears with his thumb as he held her face tenderly. “Feeling a bit better?”

Jester nodded, nuzzling lightly into one of his palms, making Fjord want to melt.

But before he could, his mouth betrayed him and ask the question that had been burning him for the last ten minutes, “Want to tell me what’s wrong?”

Apparently that had been exactly the wrong thing to say as Jester froze, her violet eyes flying open to stare into Fjord’s face with pure…fear? But before Fjord could give voice to his confusion, Jester was pulling herself away from him. 

“Get out! Get out right now!” Jester began to scream, her voice raw from crying and…something else. Something painful that hit Fjord right in the stomach.

“Jess, what—?” was all he could get out before she was pulling him from the floor towards the door. Feeling his phone slip out of his pocket, he reached blindly behind himself as Jester continued to pull towards the doorway. His hand wrapped around something half a second before Jester had finally pulled him to standing.

“I said _get out!_ Now! I need you to get the fuck out!” Jester continued to scream, before she successfully shoved him out, slamming the door to the bathroom closed and locking it for good measure.

Recovering slightly from the drastic mood shift, Fjord slammed on the bathroom door with his fist, feeling sick at her rage and sadness as he heard the sobs start up again, “Jester! What’s wrong? What happened? Jester, please!”

Her continued tears was his only response.

“Jester, please. Just tell me. Please just tell me,” he felt tears start to gather at the edges of his periphery, as a lump formed in his throat, sliding down the door to the floor. Pressing his forehead to the closed door, Fjord felt a couple tears escape as the words came unbidden, “Please tell me what I did wrong.”

“Just go away. Please just go away,” came Jester’s tear-heavy voice from the other side of the door, cracking Fjord’s heart in two.

He rolled onto his butt after a few more minutes, leaning his back against the door and tilting the back of his head against it. Fjord wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to slam his head against a wall.

Jester knew. Jester finally realized how much of a fuck up he was. 

How stupid Fjord was. How she deserved better than some goddamn orphan from a goddamn small town who worked at the local aquarium. She deserved a guy with a future, who could give her everything he couldn’t, jewels and diamonds and-and-_and_—

Fjord slammed his hands against his face to muffle the oncoming sobs that he knew where just drifting below the surface. However, before they could break his carefully constructed facade, Fjord felt something thin and plastic smack right into his face.

“What the he—“ he began, before his golden eyes blew wide as he suddenly realized what he was holding.

A pregnancy test. A _used_ pregnancy test.

A used pregnancy test that had the word “Pregnant” clearly displayed in the center of the screen.

Fjord suddenly felt like screaming and crying again, for absolutely different reasons than before.

“Oh my god,” the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. As Jester continued to sob behind him, Fjord let himself say the words again, “Oh my _god._”

He was knocking on the door again before he knew what he was doing, his heart thumping away in his chest with some emotion he couldn’t identify fully. Happiness? Terror? Pure, unadulterated fear?

“Fjord, please just go away!” Jester wailed from beyond the door again.

“Jester, please let me in. I need to talk to you,” Fjord heard the pleading in his voice, not caring how desperate he sounded.

“Not right now… I can’t…” another sob interrupted her.

Fjord ran a shaky hand through his shaggy black hair, as his fingers tightened around the test in his other hand, “I _really _don’t want to do this through the door…” her murmured to himself, beginning to pace the length of the hallway, finding the confidence within himself to say…to ask…to _beg_…

“Jester, are you pregnant?”

He clapped his hand over his mouth, before he stared at the now silent door. 

Fuck, fuck, _fuck_! He did not mean to say that out loud and so bluntly and—

Fjord heard a sniffle before a whisper, “Will you leave me if I am?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From her spot on the bathroom floor, Jester was clearly able to hear Fjord lean his weight agains the bathroom door once more, his voice urgent and his tone slightly admonishing,“What?! Jessie, no. Of course not! Who the fuck does that when they find out their girlfriend is pregnant?!”

Jester couldn’t contain the snort if she wanted to, “I’m pretty sure my father said the same thing before he left my mom and never came back.”

A long silence greeted answered her as she pulled one of the Egyptian cotton towels from a rack and mindlessly wiped her face. She gave the jewel-toned surface a glare as she noticed the eyeliner and mascara stains that had appeared. _This is going to be so hard to get out. And these were brand new from Mama. God, I fuck up everything! How am I not supposed to fuck up a child? And meanwhile, Fjord’s probably left because I’m an asshole and—_

“Jester, we aren’t our parents,” came that soft, soothing voice that Jester had loved for the past four years, immediately bringing tears once more to her eyes.

_Oh Fjord, you always say the right thing—_

“I mean, if we were, then we’d be leaving the kid at an orphanage without telling the people our names and then he’d get abandonment issues and pretend he had a different accent than he actually did for give or take a decade,” Fjord continued, his voice pitching at some parts.

Jester let silence envelope the two of them for several moments as she stared at the door in disbelief, _Okay, maybe he doesn’t _ always _ say the right thing._

“Fjord, was that supposed to be funny?” she responded, feeling the tiniest bit outraged.

“Yeah…it was,” he paused briefly before sighing deeply as the sound of paced steps began to sound from outside, “and it _really _wasn’t. Jessie, I—I’m not going to tell you what to do with your body. But, I am going to say, that I won’t make you choose between me and the baby.”

The tightness in Jester’s chest suddenly dissipated and tears sprung to her eyes once more. Was it too early to start blaming the tears on pregnancy hormones? Because Jester hadn’t felt this whiplashed by her emotions since she first started getting privately tutored. “Fjord, I…”

“Because, it’s ours. It’s _ours_. He or she or they or whatever that baby wants to be someday is us! That is you and me right there. And I…” Fjord’s strong, calming voice suddenly falter, “I…”

The door gave a brief shake as the weight of a body suddenly slid down it. Jester rushed to the her side of it, dropping to her knees and pressing her palms against it, “Fjord, are you okay?!”

“Wow, we made a baby,” his voice was so dazed, Jester felt a bubble of laughter gathering in her throat, “Jester, we made a baby. You’re pregnant with _our_ baby.”

“Yes, Fjord, I’ve been crying about that for the last hour,” she teased, shaking her head slightly. Leave it to her adorable boyfriend to be the last one to get the memo.

“Jester, what I meant to say before I just got _hit _with how freaking amazing it is that we made a kid—“ his voice moved slightly as he adjusted himself against the door.

“I don’t know why you’re so shocked, you were there. And I’m pretty sure you enjoyed it too,” this time Jester did release a bit of giggle.

“Jess, I’m trying to be romantic and supportive here and you are not helping at all,” she could practically see Fjord pinching his brow together in slight frustration as smile fought its way onto his lips. 

“Well, I am a known troublemaker. You knew this before we got together,” Jester grinned easily in return.

“I did. And I can honestly say I love you so much both because and despite it.”

Out of all the things he’d been saying to her, Jester hadn’t expected this one. He loved her. Fjord still loved her. She swung the door open, staring down at her boyfriend in shock as he fell backwards onto the rug at her feet.

“You still love me? Even if I’m pregnant and we’re not married?” the words flew out of her mouth before she could stop them, before she could fully consider how hurt she’d be if the answer wasn’t positive or happy or good for her.

Fjord scrambled to his feet in an instance so that he once again towered over her in that delightful way Jester loved so much. His hands cupped her jaw before Jester could even think to move away, not that she wanted to, not that she would have.

“Jester, I’m with you, you know that. I’m not going to leave you just because we’re doing everything out of order,” Fjord’s smile was so bright that the last of her worries melted in his warm sunlight, a blush blooming across her tanned cheeks, “Hell, we didn’t even date until after I told you I love you. Only fitting that you’re pregnant before I could get a chance to propose.”

Jester’s heart fluttered at his words, and her words fly out in a rush again,“You wanted to propose?!”

Now it was Fjord’s turn to blush, a hand combing through the salt and peppered strands at the back of his head, “Well, I’ve been thinking about it for a while now…” he chanced a glance at Jester, “I mean. I haven’t gotten the ring yet. I wanted to ask your mom first, if she’d be okay with me being in the family. And, well, I’ve been in love with you for almost two years. And we’ve known each other for at least a year before that. So, I thought it’d be maybe safe to, um, propose—”

Pulling him down by his collar, Jester cut him off with a kiss. If more instinctual than anything else, Fjord’s arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her in closer to him.

Once the need to breath overpowered to need to continue kissing him, Jester pulled away slightly to stare up into her boyfriend’s face, her smile so big it was beginning to hurt,“Oh my god, you’ve actually thought about it! You actually want to marry me!” 

“Jess, I just said it. Of course, I meant it,” came his slightly exasperated reply as he leaned his forehead against hers. Jester might’ve been insulted slightly by the words if not for the matching grin he sported. 

She hugged him tighter at the words, letting her eyes fall closed in her happiness. Fjord still loved her and wanted to even marry her. “Fjord, I’m so lucky to have you,” she sighed out, giving a little nuzzle against his chest.

In response, he placed a soft kiss to her forehead before pulling back slightly to stare into her eyes, making her heart beat wildly in her chest,“Jester Lavorre, I have been and continue to be madly in love with you. I hope to marry you someday, with all our friends there to witness. I want to move in together and argue over the remote and curl up on the couch and fall asleep in each other’s arms.” 

Fjord paused in his speech as he seemed to search her eyes for the next thing to say. Jester watched as his Adam’s apple bounced as he gulped before saying his next sentence in a more subdued tone, “And, if you want to keep this baby, Jess, I will more than happy to be our baby’s father.”

Another set of tears came to Jester’s eyes as she hugged Fjord tighter, hiding her face in his chest. She let his warmth soak into her bones, letting his firm grip around her wash away any of the worries that still clung to her from her earlier revelation. Once she was certain that her voice wouldn’t crack, Jester looked back up at her boyfriend with all the love and happiness (and relief) that she felt,“Fjord, how do you always say the right thing exactly when I need to hear it?”

“Just lucky I guess,” came his soft reply against her lips as Fjord claimed them as his own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ about 8 months later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Jess, I know this is awful but the doctor said you should be drinking water not kool-aid—“ Fjord began but was immediately cut off by Jester’s death grip on his hand, a string of curse words coming out of both of them at the motion.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit!!!!” Jester screamed, using her other hand to press against the muscle spasms that were occurring at the base of her spine, “Oh, fucking fuck!”

“Wow, Mrs. Tusktooth, that one was doozy,” said a nurse who popped in with a sheet of paper.

“It’s Lavorre still,” Jester said wearily, leaning back against the pillows, breathing heavily, “The wedding hasn’t happened yet. I wanted to look super hot for the wedding dress, not super pregnant.”

“Plus, I’ll probably be taking her name anyway,” he responded, rubbing his hand with a wry smile as he looked up at the nurse with a soft smile, “So, what was it you were coming to tell us?”

“With how far apart the contractions are, it’s likely that the baby will be coming soon. And by soon, we mean within the next half hour,” the nurse said with a smile, “I’m gonna grab your fiancé some scrubs so he can stay in the room with you for the birth.”

Fjord nodded at her politely as Jester reached out for his hand once again. Once she got it, Jester kept her eyes squeezed shut as she attempted used all her focus to keep her breath steady. It would do the baby no good if Jester had a heart attack right that very moment.

“Fjord?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you please just talk to me? Like about anything? Like like blueberries, or the mating habits of dolphins or any of that tour crap you tell the schools at the aquarium,” Jester said, using her free hand rub the fabric of her the dressing gown in small, soothing circles.

“Well, um.Did you know that _otters_, umm…” Fjord began, before falling into silence long enough for Jester to peak open an eye to look over at him.

“Fjord?”

He shook himself awake after a moment, before pinching his brows together, “Sorry. Yeah, _otters_ well they…” he looked over at Jester and smiled awkwardly, “Would you believe that my mind can’t thing up a single thing about otters right now?”

“Besides, them being _soooooo_ cute? Yeah, sounds about right,” Jester laughed, resuming her calming circles on her belly as she continued to do her breathing exercises. _1 2 3 4, 4 3 2 1. 1 2 3 4, 4 3 2 1…_

“Jess, are you…” came Fjord’s voice suddenly, shocking Jester out of her internal counter to look over at him. He stared at their intertwined finger for a moment before she found his golden eyes meeting hers, “Are you scared, too?”

“Scared, me? Pfft, of course not,” Jester immediately responded, despite the shot of anxiety that flew through her system at his words. God, she was absolutely terrified, but Fjord wan’t, so how could she tell him that she had no idea if she’d be a good mom when he was so ready to be a dad and—_wait._

“…Too?” Jester asked, blinking her big violet eyes as she took in the pinprick that was his pupils.

“Yeah, I’m terrified,” Fjord was up and pacing before Jester could say anything more, “Absolutely. Positively terrified. I never had parents. I just had Vandren and he isn’t the best example of how a father should act,” his calloused hands ran through his hair as he paced, the shaking obvious from where Jester was lying was standing, “And-and! Your dad isn’t in the picture! How am_ I _supposed to be a father to this child? How can I be a good dad?” He stopped and looked back at her face then, his golden eyes so filled with worry over how he would measure up for their child that Jester’s heart felt like it was about to burst.

“Fjord, come here,” she said, extending a hand out to him, which he took immediately. Placingit on his cheek, Fjord sighed into the contact, some of the tension that flowed through him. “You are going to be a great dad. You are so kind and smart and brilliant and sweet and—_ow ow ow owwwww_!” A shot of pain through her spine, made the room go white for several moments, as Jester’s visioned filled with tears.

“Jessie! Nurse! Nurse!” Fjord’s voice broke through the white, searing hot pain for a moment as the sound of running footsteps filled the room.

“Jester, are you all right? I’m your doctor, Essik Theyless and I need you to look at me really quickly,” Dr. Essik said, before a flashlight was shining in Jester’s eyes.

“I’m fine. Just a contraction. It just hit harder this time,” Jester gasped out, before giving Fjord’s hand a gentle squeeze.

“Well, I think it’s about time we start getting you set up for the main event. Nurse, I’m gonna need some…” Essik’s voice faded out as he walked out of the room, a woman following him with a clipboard.

“So…what was I saying?” Jester said, with a small smile.

“You were trying to comfort me about being a dad,” Fjord’s eyes were warm when she met them, his hand brushing at the damp bangs that clung to her forehead.

“Oh. Yeah. Well, you’re gonna do great,” Jester said, huffing slightly, before tightening her hand around his before looking up into his eyes frantically,“Also, thank you for saying you’re scared because I’m terrified! Oh my god, this baby is coming out of me in less than an hour! It’s been inside me for months! I’m freaking out! What if it hates me? What if it doesn’t like me?! What if—are you seriously laughing right now, Fjord?! I didn’t laugh during your freak out!”

Fjord pressed a kiss to her forehead before continuing to chuckle against her forehead,“Jess, I am so in love with you right now. Only you and I could freak out right at the finish line.”

“You know, I _really_ want to stay mad at you but when you look at me all soft like that, I can’t,” she tilted her head up to look into her fiancé’s eyes, “Fjord, I love you tooo—_OWWWWW_! DOCTOR ESSIK!!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the hour felt like days, as Fjord clutched onto Jester as she screamed and cursed as contraction after contraction washed over her, interspersed with commands to push or not push from the doctor at the end of the bed. 

However, once the screaming, squirming infant was brought to the exhausted, sobbing form of Jester, Fjord knew that everything was over. Because, Guinevere Marian Lavorre was the most beautiful child he’d ever seen.

“Hello, Guinevere. I’m your mama,” Jester said, tears still flowing down her cheeks, as she pressed the back of a finger to her daughter’s cheek, feeling how soft and wanting to sob at how _perfect_ their baby was.

“And I’m your daddy,” Fjord gripped onto Jester’s shoulders like he never wanted to let go. That it was the very last thing he ever wanted to do. He pressed a shaky kiss to her temple as Gwen began to settle into her arms with only a few more whimpers. “I love you, Jessie.”

“I love you, too, Fjord.”

Despite the sheer want of staring at their baby forever, Fjord eventually convinced Jester to sleep for a bit as he carefully rocked their newborn daughter in his arms as he paced the room. Glancing over at Jester’s obviously tired but still overwhelmingly beautiful face before staring once more at the lightly tanned and calm features of their daughter, Fjord just felt like crying all over again. 

Jester was _his_ fiancé.

Gwen was _his _daughter.

He had people that were _his._

“Oh my god! Is that her?!” came the gruff voice of their best friend and Jester’s former roommate as she rushed into the room. “Hey, Gwen! I’m your cool aunt Beau. Also, your godmother but lets not talk about that right now.”

“Shhhhh! Jessie’s trying to sleep—” Fjord got out but was promptly ignored as Jester quickly awoke from the noise of their friends. 

“You guys made it!” Jester responded happily as Nott hopped up onto the bed to share a #ClubMom hug.

“Oh, Jessie, you look so good! After I had Luke, I looked like a verifiable _wreck_ for weeks. But you know my hubby: he took such good care of me,” Nott began, curling into Jester’s side as she sunk into yet another story about how wonderful her husband was and how motherhood was so great

“Does anyone want me to grab coffee from across the street? That shop sells fair trade, organic beans,” Caduceus said, causing several voices to respond affirmatively with an ask for hot chocolate from the bed.

“Gwen, you are gonna be so goddamn pretty someday, just like your mom. I can already see that all the boys and girls are just gonna drool over you. And I’ll teach you how to kick their asses some day in my martial arts studio,” Beau said with her voice beginning to crack slightly.

“Wait, are you crying, Beau?” Fjord asked, earning himself a punch in the arm as Beau curled up her niece tighter against her.

“No. Fuck you,” she responded, as she turned to face Caleb, who immediately began to sing to the baby in German.

Watching the room full of people, Fjord let his slight irritation at their interruption pass. 

A light squeeze on his shoulder interrupted him briefly, and he turned to find Yasha smiling down at him, “Congratulations, Fjord.”

“Thank you,” he whispered just as quietly, before Yasha took a seat beside Jester, letting his fiancé pull her into a conversation about how soon before Gwen could start eating donuts.

Fjord let out a soft chuckle as he smiled.

His earlier thought was wrong: these people right here had been always been his people, his family. And, with the birth of Gwen, it just meant that they had a new member.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, I FINALLY end this godforsaken writing challenge!  
Sorry about the 4.5k word nightmare I have just written, but I hope yall enjoyed it!
> 
> Thank you for those who have followed this to the end with me!


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